Juan Rosai, M.D.
Born	August 20, 1940 Poppi, Italy
Residence	Milan, Italy
Citizenship	Italian, US
Nationality	Italian, US
Fields	Medicine & Pathology
Alma mater	University of Buenos Aires, Argentina & Washington University in St. Louis, MO
Known for	Research in Surgical pathology
Influences	Eduardo Lascano and Lauren Ackerman

Juan Rosai, M.D. (birthdate August 20, 1940) is an Italian-born American physician who has contributed to clinical research in the subspecialty of surgical pathology. He is the principal author and editor of a major textbook in that field, and he has characterized novel medical conditions such as Rosai-Dorfman disease and the desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Rosai is also well-known because of his role as mentor and teacher to many American surgical pathologists.

[edit] Early Life & Education

Juan Rosai was born in Poppi, Italy. When he was eight years old, his parents emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina because of economic problems in Italy.^[1] At the age of 15 Rosai enrolled in the School of Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires.^[1] During his third year of medical school, he met Professor Eduardo Lascano, a pathologist who stimulated young Rosai's interest in that discipline. Dr. Rosai earned the M.D. degree at the age of 21, in 1961. While serving subsequently as a house officer in pathology with Dr. Lascano at the University of Buenos Aires, Rosai was introduced to Dr. Lauren Ackerman at a medical conference in Argentina ^[1]. Ackerman invited Rosai to train with him in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States.

[edit] Career in the United States

After accepting the offer to pursue additional studies in the U.S., Dr. Rosai completed his residency and fellowship in anatomic pathology at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital under Ackerman's tutelage.^[1][2] Subsequently, Rosai remained on the faculty of Washington University until 1974, when he was appointed Professor & Director of Anatomic Pathology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. He left there in 1985 for an identical position at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, where he stayed until 1991.^[2] From 1991 to 1999, Rosai was the James Ewing Alumni Professor and Chairman of Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.^[2]

[edit] Work in Italy

Dr. Rosai has maintained ties to Italy, his home country, throughout his life. In 1982–1983 he spent a sabbatical year at the University of Florence and the University of Bologna. He chose to move permanently back to Italy in 2000, as Chairman of the Department of Anatomic Pathology at the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy. In 2005, he became the Director of the Center for Oncologic Pathology at the Italian Diagnostic Center (CDI) in Milan. Currently, Rosai still has academic connections to the United States, as Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University; Visiting Professor of Pathology at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital; and Senior Pathologist at Genzyme Genetics Corporation, New York, NY.

[edit] Scientific Publications

Rosai is an author of more than 400 scientific peer-reviewed papers on topics in pathology^[3], including the seminal descriptions of such entities as sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy (Rosai-Dorfman disease), desmoplastic small round cell tumor, spindle-cell epithelial tumor with thymus-like differentiation of the thyroid, and sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation of the spleen.^[4][5][6][7] He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Surgical Pathology (ISSN 1066-8969) as well as a member of the editorial boards of several other pathology journals.^[8] Rosai was also Editor-in-Chief of the 3rd Series of the Atlas of Tumor Pathology of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), and author of AFIP fascicles on Tumors of the Thymus^[9] and Tumors of the Thyroid Gland.^[10] Rosai has edited a book on the history of American surgical pathology, called Guiding the Surgeon’s Hand,^[11] and has been the principal author and editor of a textbook now called Rosai and Ackerman’s Surgical Pathology (ISBN 978-0-323-01342-0) for the last 35 years. He has also edited or co-edited 13 other books.^[12] Because of his professional accomplishments and his mentorship of many professional trainees, Rosai has been called "the pathologist of pathologists".^[1]

[edit] Professional Awards & Honors

In appreciation for his contributions to pathology, Rosai has received formal recognition from academic institutions around the world, as follows:

• Doctorate Honoris Causa at the University of Bologna, Italy (1988);
• Doctorate Honoris Causa at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (1999);
• Doctorate Honoris Causa at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina (2000);
• Doctorate Honoris Causa at the University of Ioannina, Greece (2007);
• Honorary Membership in the Royal College of Pathologists, England (2001);
• Life Trustee of the American Board of Pathology;
• Distinguished Pathologist Award of the Council of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP, March 2010).

[edit] Other Pertinent Topics

• Surgical pathology
• List of pathologists

[edit] References