UK has appointed a new director for the Markey Cancer Center.

The university announced Tuesday that Dr. B. Mark Evers will be the director of the center, as well as a professor of surgery in the UK College of Medicine, according to a UK news release. He will also be appointed as physician-in-chief of the oncology service line and will hold the endowed Markey Cancer Foundation Chair.

Evers is coming to UK from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he is the director of the UTMB Comprehensive Cancer Center, among other roles.

He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for the past 17 years, is currently principal investigator or director for seven externally funded studies and the co-investigator for five others.

Evers will bring about $5.5. million in multiyear grant funding, including more than $1 million in current year support. At the outset, Evers is expected to bring a total of $14 million in grant funding to Kentucky for the research program.

In his new roles, Evers will work on achieving designation by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center, said Dr. Michael Karpf, UK’s executive vice president for health affairs, in the news release.

“Mark Evers represents the caliber of leadership that can take Markey to new heights of excellence,” Karpf said. “As we work toward achieving NCI designation over the next few years, it will be critical to have a top-tier director at the helm.”