In 1993, when William Hait came to New Jersey to start work toward the NCI designation for Rutgers, the place had one office and three cubicles.
Four years later, in 1997, the Cancer Institute of New Jersey received the NCI Cancer Center designation, and on the next review cycle, in 2002, it received the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation.
The Cancer History Project invited Hait, the first director of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey to sit down for a conversation with Steven K. Libutti, the institution’s current director.
“That’s almost unprecedented today, to be able to achieve that, and so, that’s an amazing accomplishment,” Libutti said to Hait.
How did Hait get it done?
“I was given some very sound advice from my colleagues at Yale. They said, ‘Your instinct will be to build the basic science programs first.’ They said, ‘Build the clinical programs first, because that’s what the center at first will be known for.’
“So, I tried my best to recruit outstanding clinical people, clinical researchers, master clinicians, people who could really be dedicated to giving incredibly high-level care to the people in New Jersey.”
Rutgers, now a part of a health system and a scientific consortium with Princeton University, recently started construction of a $750 million cancer hospital in collaboration with RWJBarnabas Health.
