Dr. Robert Reiter and Dr. Nima Nassiri have been named recipients of the 2026 Research Awards of Distinction by the Urology Care Foundation and the American Urological Association.
Reiter, chief of the division of urologic oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, received the Richard D. Williams, MD Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award for lifetime contributions to prostate cancer research.
In addition to surgical management of prostate cancer, Reiter has expertise in focal therapy to treat select individuals, MRI-guided biopsies to diagnose prostate cancer and all forms of medical therapy.
“It is truly a great honor to have been nominated for and been awarded the Richard D. Williams Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award,” said Reiter, who is also UCLA’s Bing Professor of Urologic Research and director of the prostate cancer program. “Dr. Williams was an inspirational leader who believed in the critical importance of research to advance our understanding and management of this common and oftentimes lethal disease.”
Nassiri, assistant professor of urology at the Geffen School of Medicine and director of the bladder transplant program, received the Outstanding Graduate Scholar Award. His clinical interests include general urology, adult and pediatric kidney transplantation, renovascular surgery and robotic kidney transplantation.
“I am honored to have been selected as an Outstanding Graduate Scholar,” Nassiri said. “The RSA [research scholar award] provided critical early funding support that helped launch my research initiatives and, importantly, fostered confidence in the work I aimed to pursue.”
The awards support cutting-edge research in all areas of urology, from basic science to clinical trials.
