Dr. Welsh had a singular focus in life to help humanity, and during his college years he became intrigued by the power of the immune system and astonished that cancer cells could adapt by evading immune detection. This interest led to his first job at Genentech, where he witnessed the development of some of the first targeted therapies, including trastuzumab (Herceptin). During this time, Dr. Welsh first learned of antibody-dependent cellular immunity and how a drug like trastuzumab could be used to influence an immunologic response. During his residency in Radiation Oncology, Dr. Welsh began to realize that radiation has the ability to stimulate immune responses by killing cancer cells within the patient and that process can produce an immunologic T-cell response. Also during his residency, Dr. Welsh ran a lab that led to a patent on a novel c-Met kinase inhibitor, which was licensed to industry. Although it was rewarding to see a drug he developed enter into clinical use, Dr. Welsh came to realize that blocking a single part of a signaling pathway was too simplistic an approach in cancer and could in fact facilitate treatment resistance. Thinking there must be a better way, he began to consider combining radiation therapy with immunotherapy as a potential opportunity to permanently control cancer. In his current position as a tenured Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Welsh realizes his mission on a daily basis. Seeing first-hand the devastation that cancer causes only serves to galvanize his determination. As an independent investigator, Dr. Welsh is now focused on enhancing the effects of immunotherapy through its rational combination with radiation. This work includes running many of the first trials of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD1 with radiation, as well as testing preclinical models of immunotherapy with radiation. Running a lab in addition to treating patients provides a unique clinical insight that comes from seeing firsthand how best to combine immunotherapies with radiation, with the ultimate goal of developing truly personalized therapeutic approaches.