The BSID Medal for Contributions to Dermatological Research in 2023 is awarded to Prof. Jonathan Barker!
Jonathan is Professor of Medical Dermatology at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London and honorary consultant dermatologist at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. He specialises in complex hospital based medical dermatology, having established the Severe Psoriasis Service in 1996 and co-establishing the Skin Therapy Research Unit in 1995.
Jonathan’s clinical and research training in dermatology took place at Guy’s Hospital in London and at the University of Michigan in USA. He was first appointed to faculty in 1991 before taking up his current chair in 2000. From 2000-2002 he was clinical director of St John’s before taking over as Dean of St John’s shortly before re-organisation of the medical faculty of King’s College London and change of title to Academic Head, a post he held until 2018. During this time he was also Director of MSc in Clinical Dermatology and Lead of NIHR BRC Dermatology theme at KCL.
Jonathan’s research focuses on long term skin conditions and extends from genetic discovery to clinical outcome assessment. He has been principal investigator of national and international consortia using genetic and multiomic approaches to discover causal disease mechanisms, new drug targets and biomarkers of disease subtypes and outcome measures to therapeutic interventions. These are being applied to important chronic skin diseases such as psoriasis, acne and eczema. His research has been funded through programme and project grants from MRC, NIHR, EU, medical charities and industry. Jonathan has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, authored and edited several books including the latest (10th) edition of Rook’s Textbook of Dermatology. Highly cited publications include those in Lancet, Nature Genetics and New England Journal of Medicine.
Jonathan is a past President of the European Dermatology Forum (recipient of their Pro Meritis award) and the European Society for Dermatological Research (now lifelong honorary member) having been secretary of both. From 2018-2021 he was President of International Psoriasis Council having previously been a board member and chair of the scientific committee. He has given keynote lectures around the world on many occasions including at SID, ESDR and WCD. He has received prizes from and is an honorary overseas member of several national dermatological associations including Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, and the USA.