Robert A. Schwartz MD, MPH

Professor and Head, Dermatology

Robert A. Schwartz MD, MPH, DSc (Hon)

Professor and Head, Dermatology

E-mail: roschwar@rutgers.edu

Robert A. Schwartz, MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), one of America’s foremost dermatologists, is in his third decade as the Professor and Head of Dermatology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is also Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Visiting Professor at the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration. Professor Schwartz serves on the Rutgers University Board of Trustees.

Professor Schwartz has authored several books, most recently Skin Cancer Recognition and Management, second edition, published in 2008 by Wiley-Blackwell. Professor Schwartz has also written 10 monographs, and is the author of over 250 book chapters, 500 articles, and 150 other publications. Many of these are in the area of dermatologic oncology, where Professor Schwartz maintains a special interest in epidermal tumors and Kaposi’s sarcoma. In 1981 Prof. Dr. Schwartz led one of the three groups that first described AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma (KS-AIDS). In 1978 he described florid cutaneous papillomatosis, also known as the Schwartz-Burgess syndrome. Professor Schwartz is credited with the clinical description of new subtypes, telangiectatic Kaposi's sarcoma, keloidal Kaposi's sarcoma and ecchymotic Kaposi’s sarcoma. He also first described acral acanthotic anomaly (acral acanthosis nigricans). In 1980 Edmund Klein, Robert A. Schwartz and associates authored an article published in Cancer which is today considered a breakthrough employing low-dosage and hence non-immunosuppressive therapy with vinblastine for Kaposi's sarcoma. This was one of the first effective treatments of a cancer that became more frequent as the AIDS epidemic unfolded.

Professor Schwartz has been elected a member honoris causa of the Bulgarian, Czech, Georgian, German, Iranian, Italian, Jordanian, Korean, Kuwaiti, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian, and Yugoslavian national dermatologic societies, and an International Corresponding Member of the Amazonense Academy of Medicine. He is the recipient of the 2008 Stefan G. Nicolau Medal, 2007 Academia Medica Wratislaviensis Polonia Medal, and 2001 Hieronymus Fracastorus Medal. The University President of China Medical University bestowed the title of Honorary Professor upon him in a formal ceremony in China in November 2012.

He has lectured widely, including eighteen consecutive years on the faculty of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, as a featured speaker at the Jubilee 25th Congress of the Polish Dermatologic Association in Lódz, Poland (1995), at the 5th Annual Congress of the Caribbean Dermatologic Society in Bridgetown, Barbados (1996), at the 50th Congress of the Japanese Dermatologic Society in Nagoya (1999), at the 41st Italian National Dermatology Congress in Capri, Italy (2003), at the 9thInternational Congress of Dermatology in Beijing, China (2004), the 5th Symposium of the Korean Dermatopathology Society at Korea Univ. Seoul (2005), the 33rd Annual Society for Cutaneous Ultrastructural Research meeting in Warsaw (2007), the combined Czech and Slovak National Dermatology Congress in Bratislava (2007), 8th Iranian Congress of Dermatology (2008), 8th National Congress Bulgarian Dermatologic Society (2008), 27th Colombian Congress of Dermatology (2008), 15th Jornada de Dermatología Clínica Alemana – Universidad Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile (2009), and the Fourth Congress of the Macedonian Dermatologic Society (2009). He delivered the 3rd Annual Raul Fleishmajer Memorial Lecture at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (2008). In 2010 he was the featured speaker at the 62nd Annual Korean Dermatology Association meeting in the ancient capital, Gyeongyu, and gave the Albert Neisser Distinguished Professor Lecture at the Wroclaw (Breslau) University. He was also an invited speaker at the Brazilian Society of Dermatology, Salvador, Bahia (2010), Sociedad Dematólogos de Puerto Rico, Viaques, (2010), 7th Asociación Dermatológica del Caribe Congreso Internacional, Cartagena, Colombia (2011), 10th Congress, International Society of Cosmetic Dermatology, Shenyang, China (2011), 1st Congress of Montenegrin Dermatology, Budva (2011), and 4th Russian Congress of Dermatology, St. Petersburg (2011)Academia Amazonense de Medicina the 66th Annual Brazilian Society of Dermatology Annual Congress, Floriánopolis, Brazil (2011), the 15th Annual Congress of the Cosmetic Dermatology Society of India, Goa (2011), the 47th Annual Reunión of the Sociedad Venezolana de Dermatología (2011), the 3rd Kuwait Pediatric Dermatology Symposium (2011), the Dubai World Dermatology and Laser Conference, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2012), the 21st Annual Congress, European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, Prague (2012), 3rd Croatian Congress of Psychodermatology, Split, Croatia (2012), 4th International Kuwait Pediatric Dermatology Symposium (2012), International Vilitigo Symposium, Shenyang, China, (2012), World Health Academy 1st International Winter Consensus Conference of Dermatology, Kitzbühel, Austria (2012), 13th Pan Arab League Dermatology Congress, Dead Sea, Jordan (2013), and the 1st Yemeni Congress of Dermatology, Sanai’a, (2013)3rd Annual National Society of Cutaneous Medicine, Las Vegas (2013), XXXI Reunión Anual de Dermatólogos Latinoamericanos, Punta del Este, Uruguay (2013), 3rd Euro-Asian Association of Dermatovenreologists Congress, Odessa, Ukraine (2013), International Vilitigo Symposium, São Paulo, Brazil (2013), 12th International Gulf Cooperation Council Dermatology Conference, Kuwait (2013), and the 4th Annual National Society for Cutaneous Medicine Congress, Las Vegas (2014).

Professor Schwartz is in his second term as President of the World Health Academy (2011-2012; 2014-present) and is a past President of the Dermatology Section of the New York Academy of Medicine (2004-2005; 2011-2012). He has completed two five-year terms an assistant editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and has been Editor of the Acta Dermatovenerologica Alpina Panonica Adriatica. He is an Associate Editor of Cutis and Acta Dermatovenerologica Croatica, Deputy Editor of Mycoses, Contributing Editor of Dermatologic Surgery, and Section Editor of the Journal of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous dermatology journals, including theInternational Journal of Dermatology, the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, the Indian Journal of Dermatology, Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia, Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, and Cesko-Slovenská Dermatologie. He has been active on NIH study sections since 2004, and has begun a five-year term on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Dermatology.

Prof. Schwartz, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, spent his four undergraduate years at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with a BA in political science in 1969. He remained at UC Berkeley to earn a Master of Public Health in medical administration in 1970. He then matriculated into New York Medical College in Manhattan, from which he graduated as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society in 1974. He trained in dermatology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and at Roswell Park Memorial Institute – State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine. He later completed a fellowship in dermatopathology. He advanced in academia, from the University of Arizona and the University of California at San Francisco to the New Jersey Medical School, where in 1983 he became the first permanent head of dermatology, establishing a dermatology residency program in 1984. Prof. Schwartz is board certified in Dermatology and in Diagnostic and Laboratory Immunology.

At New Jersey Medical School Professor Schwartz has been faculty president twice, chairman of its medical school committee on appointments and promotions twice, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society chapter president four times, and twice as secretary of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Society chapter, which he currently heads as chapter councilor. He received the “Faculty of the Year” Award at New Jersey Medical School in 2002 and has been chosen as “Top Doctor” multiple times by New York Magazine, Inside Jersey and Castle-Conolly Guide to Best Physicians.