About

The mission of the Brigham Young University Simmons Center for Cancer Research (SCCR) is to support and facilitate foundational discovery research leading to the development of more effective methods to prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure cancer.

A major focus of that mission is to provide experience to students that inspires and initiates the training of the next generation of cancer clinicians and researchers.

The Simmons Center for Cancer Research trains the next generation of cancer researchers and clinicians by providing BYU undergraduate and graduate students research fellowships with prestigious cancer researchers at BYU and research institutions around the world. The SCCR provides its research fellows with funding, thus allowing them to focus on full-time research during the span of their fellowship.

Since 1997, when the fellowship program was initiated, hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students have been funded for full-time cancer research over the course of a semester or for up to three years. Their research has resulted in many publications. Most importantly, the SCCR fellowship program has been a platform for many students into lifelong careers of oncology research as well as clinical practice. The Simmons Center for Cancer Research is proud to fund many of Brigham Young University’s brightest student researchers in cancer research.

The Simmons Center is comprised of over 45 BYU faculty members from five different colleges who all participate in cancer research and mentor student fellows. Cancer labs at BYU span across campus and include distinguished professors from the colleges of Life Sciences; Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Engineering; Nursing, and Communications. These professors and students are driven to make a significant contribution to the discovery of a cure for cancer.

The "student first" emphasis of the Simmons Center distinguishes it from other cancer research centers at institutions of higher learning. The Simmons Center believes in the capabilities of the students here at BYU and is one of the few centers worldwide that offers fellowship funding opportunities for undergraduates.

In 1971, President Harold B. Lee made a prophetic statement at the inauguration of President Dallin H. Oaks that served as a guide for the establishment of the BYU Cancer Research Center.

“We would hope that you would give to students of this institution the vision of possibility that the Eyring Science Center could make a significant contribution to the discovery of a cure for cancer—that treacherous disease which took the life of the great scholar, Dr. Carl Eyring, after whom that building was named.”

The BYU Cancer Research Center was formed in 1977 as a joint venture between the Colleges of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the College of Life Sciences (then the College of Biology and Agriculture) and was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1997. In 2014, the name of the center was changed to the Simmons Center for Cancer Research in honor of renowned chemist and former Director Daniel L. Simmons.