07/09/2026
Robert A. Schwartz MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), MAE, FRCP Edin is the Professor and Head of Dermatology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, a position he assumed in 1983. Prof. Schwartz serves on the Rutgers University Board of Trustees and is the Chair of the university-wide Academic Standards, Regulations, and Admissions Committee. He has been a Member of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, heading its international portion.
He is an authority on global health, cutaneous oncology, HIV/AIDS, and paraneoplastic syndromes. At UCSF in 1981, Prof. Schwartz led one of the three groups that first described AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma. He contributed extensively to the understanding of cutaneous markers of internal malignancy, including with the first description of florid cutaneous papillomatosis (Schwartz-Burgess syndrome).
Prof. Schwartz is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Archivist-Historian and former Vice President of the International Society of Dermatology, and Honorary Editor-in-Chief of the journal Dermatologic Therapy. Prof. Schwartz is involved with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, having served as its International Advisor. He has written over 1000 publications, including the widely acclaimed book Skin Cancer: Recognition and Management.
Prof. Schwartz’s research and scholarship have yielded numerous academic recognitions, including election as a Member of Academia Europaea and to honorary memberships in more than twenty national medical and specialty organizations, most recently as an Honorary Fellow of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.
Prof. Schwartz holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a MPH from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He earned a MD from the New York Medical College, where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Cincinnati and at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He holds board certification in dermatology and in diagnostic and laboratory immunology.
