Dr. Alan W. Partin grew up playing football, basketball, and ran track at Grenada (MS) High School, and was valedictorian of the 1979 graduating class. At the University of Mississippi, he was an offensive lineman on the football team from 1979-82, earning two varsity letters. He achieved Academic All-SEC honors and received the National Football Foundation UM Chapter Scholar-Athlete Award. Alan earned his BA in chemistry in 1983, graduating Summa Cum Laude while also an Academic All-American football player. He credits football for training him to accept change and think fast on his feet—something that he says has paid dividends in the operating room.
Dr. Partin attended Johns Hopkins University for his medical training, receiving his PhD degree in pharmacology and molecular sciences in 1988 and his MD in 1989. By the time he graduated from medical school, Alan had published 50 manuscripts in peer-reviewed publications, written seven book chapters and was establishing a reputation as a leader in the field of prostate cancer. After a surgical internship in 1989, a surgical junior residency in 1990, and urology residency in 1991 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Partin was named to the faculty as an instructor of urology in 1994. He was promoted to associate professor in 1995 and then to professor of urology in 1999. He is the Bernard L. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Urologic Oncology.
The author of more than 550 scientific papers, Alan is also editor in chief of the journal Urology, editor of the leading urology textbook, Campbell-Walsh Textbook of Urology, associate editor of Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, associate editor of Urology Reviews, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Andrology, Urology Research and Treatment, Current Urology Reports, Clinical Prostate Cancer, and the British Journal of Urology.
In 1993, Dr. Partin developed what became known as the “PartinTables,” a computer model using mathematical formulas to help prostate cancer patients get an accurate prediction of their likelihood of being cured. His laboratories and clinical and surgical interests focus on developing and testing new and existing methods for predicting the aggressiveness of prostate cancers so that rational treatment decisions can be made by both patients and physicians. His laboratories have investigated many new “PSA-like” serum tests, many of which have subsequently become available for clinical utilization. He also has an academic and clinical interest in the basic science investigation of new, novel proteins that may help in the detection and staging of prostate cancer.
Alan has been honored with many awards, including the Hopkins Young Investigators Award, the Pfizer Scholars in Urology Award in 1996, and the “Gold- Cystoscope” award in 2001. In 2004, Dr. Partin was named director of the Department of Urology at the Brady Urological Institute and urologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 2015 he was inducted in to the 2015 Ole Miss Alumni Hall of Fame.
He is married to Vicky Partin and they have four children, Topper, David, Dane and Michael. They presently live in Baltimore, Maryland.