Founders' Award

Established by The American Society of Dermatopathology in 1983 in honor of the Founding Members of the Society, this endowed award is conceived to recognize individuals who have made outstanding original and significant contributions to the field of dermatopathology.

Congratulations to the 2018 Founders’ Award Recipient

James W. Patterson, MD
Professor Emeritus of Pathology
University of Virginia

James W. Patterson, MD, grew up in Washington, DC, and suburban New York City. He received a BA degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1968 and an MD from the Medical College of Virginia (MCV – now Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine) in 1972. He served a rotating internship in medicine and a residency and chief residency in dermatology at MCV from 1972-1976.

While in the US Army, Patterson served at Keller Army Hospital at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and then trained at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, DC, as a fellow in dermatopathology under the tutelage of Drs. Elson B. Helwig and James H. Graham. Subsequently, he served at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. During the latter appointment, he was also a clinical instructor in dermatology at the University of Colorado.
 
Upon discharge from active military service in 1982, Patterson was appointed a faculty member in pathology and dermatology at MCV. He became a tenured professor and was the director of dermatopathology at that institution, working there until 1992. Patterson then joined Dermatology Associates of Virginia in Richmond as a private-practice dermatologist and dermatopathologist. From 1996 to 2016, Patterson served as professor of pathology and dermatology and director of dermatopathology at the University of Virginia.  He retired from that position in 2016 and is now Professor Emeritus of Pathology. He is a co-owner of PRW Laboratories in Charlottesville, Virginia, and works there part-time as a dermatopathologist. He remains active in teaching and writing on topics in dermatopathology.

Patterson has been a director of the American Board of Dermatology and served as its president in 2015. He has also served on the Residency Review Committees for Dermatology and Dermatopathology of the ACGME. Other notable positions that Patterson has held include presidency of the Virginia Dermatological Society and the American Society of Dermatopathology (ASD). He is a Fellow of the ASD, a recipient of the Walter R. Nickel Award (2009), and was awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership in 2016. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Dermatology, and the Royal Society of Medicine, and holds memberships in several other professional societies in dermatology and pathology, including the American Dermatological Association. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific papers, as well as six books (most recently, Weedon’s Skin Pathology, 4th Edition) and many book chapters. He is past Editor-in-Chief and now Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology and has been a member of the editorial boards of numerous other journals. 

Past Recipients of the Founders' Award

2017	Clifton R. White, MD
2016	Christopher R. Shea, MD
2015	Lorenzo Cerroni, MD
2014	Thomas D. Horn, MD
2013	Dirk M. Elston, MD
2012	Ronald P. Rapini, MD
2011	Raymond L. Barnhill, MD
2010	Daniel J. Santa Cruz, MD
2009	Antoinette F. Hood, MD
2008	Jag Bhawan, MD
2007	Wilma F. Bergfeld, MD, FACP
2006	Ronald J. Barr, MD
2005	David D. Weedon, AO, MD, FRCPA
2004	Philip E. LeBoit, MD
2003	Ernst H. Beutner, PhD
2002	John C. Maize, MD
2001	Franz M. Enzinger, MD
2000	Waine C. Johnson, MD
1999	Loren E. Golitz, MD
1998	Martin C. Mihm, Jr., MD
1997	Edward Wilson Jones, FRCP, FRCPath
1996	John R. Haserick, MD
1995	Herbert Z. Lund, MD
1993	Richard J. Reed, MD
1992	John T. Headington, MD
1991	Robert G. Freeman, MD
1990	James H. Graham, MD
1989	A. Bernard Ackerman, MD
1988	Wallace H. Clark, Jr., MD
1987	Richard K. Winkelmann, MD
1986	Walter F. Lever, MD
1985	Elson B. Helwig, MD
1984	Hermann Pinkus, MD