William Wood is a graduate of Harvard Medical School.  He completed a residency in surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.  He is currently Professor of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in the division of Surgical Oncology in the Winship Cancer Institute.  He has devoted his research efforts to oncology, first in the immunology of autoantibodies to tumour-associated antigens, then in clinical trials of the multimodality treatment of breast cancer.  He has served as Chair of the Cancer and Leukaemia Group B Breast Committee, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Breast Committee, the NCI Breast Intergroup, and Co-Chair of the NCI Breast Cancer Steering Committee, the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group [Oxford], and BIG-NABCG.  He has been a Governor of the American College of Surgeons, a Director of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Christian Medical Association, a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the NCI, and President of the Society of Surgical Oncology, the South-eastern Surgical Congress, the Georgia Surgical Association, and the Southern Surgical Association.  He has received an honorary doctorate in medicine and surgery from the Universita Politecnica delle Marche, and honorary membership in several colleges and societies.