About Us

Photo of Stephen Katz

Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D.
Office of the Director
Director


Phone: 301-496-4353
Fax: 301-402-3607
Building: 31, Room: 4C32
E-mail: katzs@mail.nih.gov 

Updated August 30, 2007

Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D. has been Director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases since August 1995 and is also a Senior Investigator in the Dermatology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. He was born in New York in 1941 and his early years were spent in the Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland areas. After attending the University of Maryland, where he graduated with honors, he graduated from the Tulane University Medical School with honors in 1966. He completed a medical internship at Los Angeles County Hospital and did his dermatology residency at the University of Miami Medical Center from 1967 to 1970. He served in the U.S. military at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 1970 to 1972. From 1972 to1974, Dr. Katz did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and obtained a Ph.D. degree in immunology from the University of London in 1974. He then became Senior Investigator in the Dermatology Branch of the National Cancer Institute and assumed the position of Acting Chief in 1977. In 1980, he became Chief of the Branch, a position he held until 2001. In 1989, Dr. Katz also assumed the position of Marion B. Sulzberger Professor of Dermatology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, a position from which he resigned in 1995.

Dr. Katz has focused his studies on immunology and the skin. His research has demonstrated that skin is an important component of the immune system both in its normal function and as a target in immunologically-mediated disease. In addition to studying Langerhans cells and epidermally-derived cytokines, Dr. Katz and his colleagues have added considerable new knowledge about inherited and acquired blistering skin diseases.

Dr. Katz has trained a large number of outstanding immunodermatologists in the U.S., Japan, Europe. Many of these individuals are now leading their own high-quality, independent research programs. He has served many professional societies in leadership positions including as a member of the Board of Directors and President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, on the Board of the Association of Professors of Dermatology, as Secretary-General of the 18th World Congress of Dermatology in New York in 1992, as Secretary-Treasurer of the Clinical Immunology Society, and as President of both the International League of Dermatological Societies and the International Committee of Dermatology. Dr. Katz has also served on the editorial boards of a number of clinical and investigative dermatology journals, as well as several immunology journals. He has received many honors and awards, including the Master Dermatologist Award and the Sulzberger Lecture Award of the American Academy of Dermatology, the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Mentor Award, honorary membership in numerous international dermatological societies, election into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the Alfred Marchionini Gold Medal, an Honorary Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Munich, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Skin Association, and a Doctor Honoris Causa Degree from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Katz has twice received the Meritorious Rank Award and has also received the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civil servant. In July 2006, he received the Harvey J. Bullock, Jr., EEO Award in recognition of his extraordinary leadership in scientific, programmatic, and administrative arenas, and in Sept. 2006, he received the Excellence in Leadership Award from the Intl. Pemphigus Foundation. Dr. Katz received the "Change It" Champion 2007 Award from Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy in July 2007.