简介
The late Prof. Richard Scolyer AO, BMedSci, MBBS, MD, FRCPA, FRCPath, FAHMS (December 1966 - June 2026), was a Snr Staff Specialist, Tissue Pathology & Diagnostic Oncology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney; former Co-Medical Director and Faculty Member of Melanoma Institute Australia; Conjoint Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Health, The University of Sydney. He provided a clinical consultation service for the diagnosis of difficult pigmented lesions & receives more than 2000 cases for opinion from Australasia & beyond annually. He integrated his clinical practice with co-leading an award-winning translational melanoma research laboratory. His record includes co-authoring more than 1000 peer reviewed publications, books and/or book-chapters in prestigious journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute & Cancer Discovery with >111548 citations and a H-index of 146 (Google Scholar as at 5 June Mar '26). He had presented on more than 450 occasions at conferences globally. In December 2025, he was awarded The University of Sydney’s Doctor of Medicine (honoris causa) (presented in May 2026) in recognition of his extraordinary fusion of scientific rigor, clinical innovation and compassionate leadership, which has revolutionised melanoma care worldwide. In Jan '24, he & his colleague Prof. Long were jointly named 2024 Australians of the Year having been jointly named as NSW 2024 Australians of the Year in Nov '23. He received the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award in Nov '23. In May '23, he received the International Academy of Pathology’s “Distinguished Pathology Award” for his outstanding contribution to the discipline of anatomical pathology. In Nov '23, he received the 2023 Founders’ Award by The American Society of Dermatopathology (ASDP) . In June '21, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to medicine, particularly in the field of melanoma and skin cancer by The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. In '20, he received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) Distinguished Fellow Award 2020, The University of Sydney’s 2020 Alumni Award for International Achievement & Clarivate Web of Science Group “Highly Cited Researcher in 2019-23”. He received the NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Research in 2009, 2012-2014, 2016-2018, 2020-2022; the Thomson Reuters 2015 Citation Award in the Clinical Medicine category, the 2018 William O. Russell/Joanne Vandenberge Hill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Anatomical Pathology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Research Australia’s 2018 GSK Award for Research Excellence, the 2019 American Society of Dermatopathology’s Elson B Helwig Award for excellence in dermatopathology, the 2021 University of Tasmania Distinguished Alumni Award and the 2021 University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor Award for Outstanding Research. According to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge, Richard was the highest ever published scientist in the world in the field of melanoma pathology and he also has the highest H index in this field.
Richard was an expert member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Blue Books Editorial Board for the 5th edition of the WHO Classification of Skin Tumours series and was an editor of the 4th Edition of the World Health Organisation Classification of Tumours Skin Tumours volume in which he was the responsible editor for 3 of the 6 sections and authored/co-authored more than 30 chapters. He was also an invited contributing author to 6 other volumes of the WHO Classification of Tumours including for Soft Tissue and Bone, Digestive System, Thoracic, Female Genital Tract and Paediatric tumours. He was the Vice Chair of the Melanoma Expert Panel of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) for the 8th and 9th editions of AJCC Cancer Staging System, co-led the Australian Melanoma Genome Project (part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium), was lead pathologist for the NIH funded The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Melanoma Project (Cell, 2015), chaired the Melanoma Expert Panel for the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting, led pathologist/member of the overseeing Management Committee, Multidisciplinary Working Party and Author for the Australian Melanoma Clinical Practice Guidelines and co-lead author of the College of American Pathologists Melanoma Reporting protocol. He was Editor-in-Chief of Pathology and was an editorial board member of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Modern Pathology and Histopathology and several other international journals.
Sadly, on the 7th June 2026, Professor Scolyer lost his 3 year battle against glioblastoma leaving behind a legacy in both the fields of melanoma and brain cancer.
