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David R. Bickers, M.D., the Carl Truman Nelson professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and director of dermatology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Columbia University Medical Center has been elected president of the Society for Investigative Dermatology.

Dr. Bickers received his bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1963 and his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1967. He was an intern in medicine at University Hospitals, University of Iowa, Iowa City, and later completed his residency training in dermatology at New York University Medical Center. During his residency, he was a National Institute of Health training fellow in dermatology, and was a guest investigator and assistant physician at The Rockefeller University. He originally joined the faculty of Columbia P&S in 1973, before accepting an appointment at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1977. In 1994, he returned to Columbia P&S in his current position.

Dr. Bickers is a leading researcher in environmental carcinogenesis and photobiology.

The author of more than 250 scientific and clinical publications, he has written extensively on the metabolism of carcinogenic chemicals in the skin and its role in causing skin cancer, and diseases induced by environmental sunlight exposure such as the porphyrias. In 1989, he chaired a National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on Ultraviolet Radiation and the Skin. He is the author/or co-author of four books, including Clinical Pharmacology of Skin Disease (1984) and Photosensitivity Diseases: Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment, Second Edition (1989).

Dr. Bickers previously served as secretary-treasurer of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and associate editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. He has also served on several of the Society's committees.

Dr. Bickers, who is board certified in dermatology, is a member of 11 professional societies, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, The Association of American Physicians and the American Academy of Dermatology. He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and an honorary member of the German Dermatological Society.

The Society for Investigative Dermatology, which has offices in Cleveland, was established in 1938 to foster research and education in cutaneous biology. It has more than 2000 members worldwide.