Dr. Michele Carbone's appointment as interim director of the University of Hawaii's Cancer Research Center was approved by the UH Board of Regents yesterday at their monthly meeting on Kauai.

Carbone's appointment is effective Dec. 1. He replaces Dr. Carl Wilhelm-Vogel, who stepped down as director this month. Wilhelm-Vogel will assist in the transition, UH officials said.

A nationwide search for a permanent director will be undertaken.

Carbone is director of the Cancer Research Center's Thoracic Oncology Program and chairman of the Department of Pathology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. He joined the university in 2006 from Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago and has spent most of his career researching thoracic cancer. He is considered a top authority on mesothelioma, a deadly cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

Carbone received his medical degree from the Medical School of Rome—La Sapienza, and a doctorate degree in human pathology through a program of the Medical School of Rome and National Institutes of Health in the United States, according to a UH news release.