The ASA also announced the recipients of the 2021 Research Achievement Awards.

Amy S. Paller, MD of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago received the American Skin Association's David Martin Carter Mentor Award.

For more than three decades, ASA's David Martin Carter Mentor Award has honored members of the dermatology community who embody the characteristics that made the late Dr. David Martin Carter. Dr. Carter and ASA's late founder, Dr. George Hambrick, worked tirelessly to grow the organization into a leading force to defeat melanoma, skin cancer and other skin diseases.

As both a scientist and an active clinician, Dr. Paller, Department Chair and Walter J. Hamlin Professor of Dermatology, is dedicated to translating new discoveries about skin disease from bench to bedside. 

For thirty-plus years, she has influenced the field of dermatology as a distinguished clinician, researcher, mentor and educator. She has served on the faculty of the Northwestern University since 1988, where she currently serves as director of the Northwestern University Skin Disease Research Center (SDRC), one of six SDRCs in the country. Her NIH-funded basic science and clinical research — which ranges from immune-mediated inflammatory diseases in children to diabetic wound healing and topical gene therapy for skin disorders — is frequently published in top journals.

Watch as Dr. Paller discusses advances in treating atopic dermatitis in children with systemic agents.

"Congratulations to Dr. Paller and the 2021 Research Achievement Award recipients! We are honored to recognize these outstanding physicians in the field of dermatology for their vital work," says Howard P. Milstein, Chairman of ASA, in a news release.

"We are excited to present the 2021 David Martin Carter Mentor Award to Dr. Amy Paller," said Dr. David Norris, President of ASA. "Dr. Paller is the 30th honoree to receive this prestigious award. Throughout her distinguished research career, she has prepared a generation of young scientists for careers in dermatology."

Recent recipients of the David Martin Carter Mentor Award include: Dr. Gerald Lazarus of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2014), Dr. Howard Baden of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (2015), Dr. Barbara Gilchrest of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (2016), Dr. Richard Edelson of Yale School of Medicine (2017), Dr. Kathleen Green of Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University (2018), Dr. Luis Diaz of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2019), Dr. John Stanley of the University of Pennsylvania, (2019) and Dr. Paul Bergstresser of UT Southwestern Medical Center (2020).

ASA's Research Achievement Awards were instituted in 1989 to identify established scientists in investigative dermatology and cutaneous biology. This year, ASA recognized those who have greatly advanced work related to autoimmunity and inflammation, skin cancer and melanoma, psoriasis, vitiligo and pigment cell biology, public policy and medical education, discovery and for the first time in the history of the awards, translational research.

The following Research Achievement Awards were presented:

2021 Research Achievement Award in Autoimmunity and Inflammation 
Rachael A. Clark, MD, PhD
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

2021 Research Achievement Award in Skin Cancer and Melanoma
Martin A. Weinstock, MD, PhD 
Brown University

2021 Research Achievement Award in Psoriasis 
Johann E. Gudjonsson, MD, PhD
University of Michigan

2021 Research Achievement Award in Vitiligo and Pigment Cell Biology
I. Caroline Le Poole, PhD
Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

2021 Research Achievement Award in Public Policy and Medical Education
Mark Lebwohl, MD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

2021 Research Achievement Award in Discovery

Brian Kim, MD

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

2021 Inaugural Research Achievement Award in Translational Research
Robert S. Kirsner, MD, PhD
University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

"We are excited to present the Research Achievement Awards this year to such exceptional doctors. Drs. Paller, Clark, Weinstock, Gudjonsson, Le Poole, Lebwohl, Kim and Kirsner have all made impressive contributions in their respective fields. ASA is pleased to celebrate their many exciting achievements," says Dr. Norris.