Kathryn Hitchcock
Hall of Fame Class of 2025
Kate Hitchcock was born and raised in Rawlins, daughter of Jeff and Vicki (Garris) Hitchcock of Lander. She first attended UW within the High School Summer Institute, followed by the Engineering Summer Program (ESP). She also earned a seat in a program that places high school students in the National Labs, studying genetics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
Recipient of a Trustees’ Superior Student Scholarship, Kate attended UW for 4 years, studying in the Honors Program and Chemical Engineering. She worked as a counselor for the ESP and did research in various College laboratories. She was a fencer, qualifying for the Junior olympics. During her last two years she enlisted in the Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate Program and voluntarily trained with Army ROTC. She was the recipient of the top engineering sophomore and junior awards and was inducted into Tau Beta Pi. In 1996 she was named the Top Engineering Graduate in her class.
Following UW graduation she was commissioned in the United States Navy. She completed Nuclear Propulsion Training and Surface Warfare School prior to joining the Fleet, assigned to USS ENTERPRISE (CVN65). She served for 3 years aboard the carrier as Nuclear Propulsion Plant Watch Officer (running the nuclear reactors); Officer of the Deck (driving the ship and the 12-ship battlegroup); and Reactor Mechanical Division Officer. During her longest deployment, the Enterprise battle group spent 6 months in active combat and steamed over 50,000 miles, placing more than 300 Tomahawk missiles and 691,000 pounds of ordnance on strategic targets in Iraq and then Kosovo.
Contrary to her plan for some relaxing shore duty, then Lieutenant Hitchcock was specially assigned to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. She taught navigation, strategy and tactics, and ship driving, and in the summers took charge of a training ship program that moved over 1200 midshipmen and seventy officers up and down the East Coast. During her 4 years at the Academy Lt. Hitchcock completed a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland College Park, attended Anne Arundel Community College to complete a pre-medical curriculum, and worked as an orderly and triage technician at the county hospital, in addition to teaching and standing watch 60 hours per week.
In August 2004 Kate mustered out of the Navy and began medical school at the University of Cincinnati. She graduated with her PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2010, and her MD in 2012. Her doctoral dissertation explored the use of ultrasound for drug delivery and other therapies. She then completed her residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of Florida, where in her preliminary internal medicine year she earned the Intern of the Year award from among a class of 46 doctors. Dr. Hitchcock joined the UF faculty in 2017. She now runs an active clinical research program with studies enrolling patients at hospitals around the world. She publishes research on the engineering of radiation oncology with an emphasis on the use of AI. She is active in teaching both medical and engineering trainees and runs a vigorous cancer clinic. Dr. Hitchcock is currently an Associate Professor and the Chair of Radiation Oncology with four patents and over 60 peer-reviewed publications.
