Elwood V. Jensen is the Distinguished University Professor, George and Elizabeth Wile Chair in Cancer Research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's Vontz Center for Molecular Studies. In 2004 he received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for his research on estrogen receptors. Jensen was born in Springfield, Ohio, in the United States, received his bachelor's degree from Wittenberg University in 1940 and PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1944. From 1947 Jensen studied steroid hormones at Chicago, where he isolated estrogen receptors and discovered their importance in breast cancer.