William H. West, MD received a BA degree from Harvard College, an MD degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his training in cancer medicine as a fellow and Senior Investigator at the national Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

He is founder emeritus of the West Cancer Center & Research Institute in Paris, Tennessee, one of the largest cancer centers in the Southeast, with over seven hundred employees and forty providers offering cancer care in eleven locations.

During his medical career, Dr. West served as principal investigator of the pivotal study that resulted in approval of the first immunotherapy drug for the treatment of cancer. He has also made significant contributions to the use of peripheral blood stem cells to reduce the risk and expense of intensive chemotherapy.

A lifelong member of one of the largest Methodist churches in the US, he has delivered periodic lectures on the relationship of science and faith for more than forty years.

As a medical oncologist and person of faith, he has maintained passionate interest in the Near-Death Experience, the creation of the universe, the role of DNA in health and disease, and the nature of consciousness including recent studies employing psilocybin. He has constantly followed the dialogue between science and faith, immensely skeptical that there could be conflict between these two great ways of knowing.