The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is proud to announce the recipients of its 2026 Scientific Achievement Awards: Eric Vivier, DVM, PhD, recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, and Joseph Sun, PhD, recipient of the Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology.
The awards will be presented at CRI’s Annual Awards Gala on Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026, at Guastavinos in New York City. Details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Dr. Vivier is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions to the understanding of natural killer (NK) cells and innate immunity. A Professor of Immunology at Marseille Medical School and head of the Innate Lymphoid Cells laboratory at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, his discoveries have fundamentally advanced our understanding of how the immune system recognizes and eliminates cancer. His research has helped establish innate immunity as a cornerstone of modern cancer immunotherapy and has been widely translated into clinical development through his leadership in biotechnology, including as co-founder of Innate Pharma. A Highly Cited Researcher since 2015, Dr. Vivier has received numerous honors, including election to the French National Academy of Medicine and EMBO, as well as some of France’s highest civilian distinctions.
Dr. Vivier will deliver the 2026 Coley Lecture at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting, to be held November 4–8, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona. His lecture is scheduled for Sunday, November 8.
Dr. Sun is being recognized for transformative discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of immunological memory. A Member of the Immunology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Professor and Director of the Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program at Weill Cornell Medical College, he has uncovered fundamental mechanisms governing T cell and NK cell memory. As a CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow from 2007–2009 in the lab of Lewis Lanier, PhD, at UCSF, Dr. Sun demonstrated that NK cells can exhibit adaptive immune features, including clonal expansion and long-lived memory following viral infection, challenging long-standing distinctions between innate and adaptive immunity. By illuminating the molecular pathways that drive immune memory in infection and cancer, Dr. Sun’s research continues to inform the development of next-generation immunotherapies.
“Dr. Sun has been an absolute leader in his field, and I’m so happy that we’re going to acknowledge him as being one of the superstars that launched their careers with his CRI Irvington Fellowship.”
– Dr. Lewis Lanier, Member of CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council
Together, these scientists have expanded our understanding of immune cell biology and opened new avenues for harnessing the immune system to prevent and treat cancer.
