Karen Knudsen: The Scientist Who Refused to Move Slowly

“I’m a scientist first and foremost. I don’t remember a time not thinking about being a scientist.”

What Karen Knudsen, the CEO of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, remembers clearly is the pull not toward prestige or power, but toward understanding. “Curiosity toward improving human health,” she says. That phrase improving human health returns again and again, like a refrain, anchoring every turn of her journey.