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Albert Bernard Ackerman, M.D.
Born	November 22, 1936 Elizabeth, NJ
Died	December 5, 2008 New York, NY
Residence	New York, NY
Citizenship	US
Nationality	American
Fields	Dermatology & Pathology
Alma mater	Princeton University & Columbia University
Known for	Research in Dermatopathology

Albert Bernard Ackerman (November 22, 1936 – December 5, 2008) was an American physician described by The New York Times as "a founding figure in the field of dermatopathology".^[1]

Ackerman was born on November 22, 1936, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.^[1] He attended Phillips Academy, located in Andover, Massachusetts. After earning an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, he received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He had his residency training in dermatology at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University, where he had his third year of residency in dermatology and a fellowship in dermatopathology at Massachusetts General Hospital.^[2][3] During his residency, he spent two years serving at Andrews Air Force Base.^[1]

Ackerman was hired by the University of Miami in 1969 and by New York University School of Medicine in 1973. He ran the Skin and Cancer Institute at NYU, where his laboratory was one of the first to screen for Kaposi's sarcoma, a form of skin cancer that became known as a AIDS defining clinical condition in the 1980s.^[1]

He was on the faculty of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia starting in 1992. He established the Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology in New York City in 1999 to provide training in the diagnosis of skin diseases. Now the largest of its kind in the world, it is owned by Quest Diagnostics.^[1]

In 2004, Ackerman endowed the A. Bernard Ackerman Endowment for the Culture of Medicine at Harvard University to encourage collaboration among the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School to help foster the interdisciplinary aspects of the relationship between physicians and their patients.^[3]

Ackerman was a longtime critic of the argument that sun exposure should be avoided, stating that the risk of wrinkles or squamous cell carcinoma from exposure to the sun needs to be balanced against the advantages from exposure to ultraviolet radiation, a position he advocated in his book The Sun and the "Epidemic" of Melanoma: Myth on Myth!.^[4] The New York Times reported on Ackerman's return from a trip to Israel from which he returned deeply tanned having not used any sunscreen. Ackerman insisted that the causal connection between melanoma and sun exposure was not proven and that the sun should be avoided to prevent skin aging, but that it would be a mistake to assume that avoiding sunlight or using sunscreens would protect an individual from melanoma.^[5]

The American Academy of Dermatology recognized Ackerman in 2004 with its Master Dermatologist Award which recognizes "an Academy member who throughout the span of his or her career has made significant contributions to the specialty of dermatology" and to the leadership and education programs of the Academy.^[6]

He wrote some 700 papers and 60 books and provided expert testimony at 200 trials.^[1] One of his final papers, published in the Archives of Dermatology in 2008, was titled "An Inquiry Into the Nature of the Pigmented Lesion Above Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Left Eyebrow", in which Ackerman argued that the failure of Roosevelt's physicians to consider the possibility of melanoma shows the flaws in medical wisdom at the time for diagnosing such lesions.^[7]

Ackerman died at age 72 on December 5, 2008 of heart failure at his home in Manhattan.^[1]

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