International Society of Dermatology

ISD Session on Opening Day of ICCE 2026
Speakers:
Martin Kassir:
Mentorship in Dermatology: Tools For Success
Nellie Konnikov: Update in PLLA
Wael Saoudi: Mentorship in Egypt
Ferial Fanian: The Role of Industry in Mentorship

A leading voice in global dermatology, Dr. Seemal Desai has built a career at the intersection of clinical excellence, research, education, and advocacy.

Internationally recognized for his expertise in vitiligo, pigmentary disorders, and skin of color, Dr. Desai is also a dedicated educator, researcher, and mentor. He has authored hundreds of scientific publications and delivered more than 180 lectures around the world.

His leadership has extended across many of dermatology’s most prominent organizations. He recently completed his term as President of the American Academy of Dermatology, becoming the youngest dermatologist ever elected to the role, and in 2025 began serving as President of the Global Vitiligo Foundation.

As Founder and Medical Director of Innovative Dermatology and Clinical Associate Professor of Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dr. Desai continues to advance the specialty through patient care, scientific discovery, education, and global collaboration.

MedicalLeadership DermatologyResearch

Robert A. Schwartz MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), MAE, FRCP Edin is the Professor and Head of Dermatology at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, a position he assumed in 1983. Prof. Schwartz serves on the Rutgers University Board of Trustees and is the Chair of the university-wide Academic Standards, Regulations, and Admissions Committee. He has been a Member of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, heading its international portion.

He is an authority on global health, cutaneous oncology, HIV/AIDS, and paraneoplastic syndromes. At UCSF in 1981, Prof. Schwartz led one of the three groups that first described AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma. He contributed extensively to the understanding of cutaneous markers of internal malignancy, including with the first description of florid cutaneous papillomatosis (Schwartz-Burgess syndrome).

Prof. Schwartz is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Archivist-Historian and former Vice President of the International Society of Dermatology, and Honorary Editor-in-Chief of the journal Dermatologic Therapy. Prof. Schwartz is involved with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, having served as its International Advisor. He has written over 1000 publications, including the widely acclaimed book Skin Cancer: Recognition and Management.

Prof. Schwartz’s research and scholarship have yielded numerous academic recognitions, including election as a Member of Academia Europaea and to honorary memberships in more than twenty national medical and specialty organizations, most recently as an Honorary Fellow of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.

Prof. Schwartz holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a MPH from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He earned a MD from the New York Medical College, where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Cincinnati and at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He holds board certification in dermatology and in diagnostic and laboratory immunology.

. Two leading dermatology names. One stage.

At ICCE 2026, Martin Kassir and Nellie Konnikov join an international scientific program bringing together expertise, exchange, and new perspectives across dermatology and skin health.

ISD at ICCE 2026
September 9–11, 2026
Cairo, Egypt

Cairo. Two leading dermatology names. One stage.

At ICCE 2026, Martin Kassir and Nellie Konnikov join an international scientific program bringing together expertise, exchange, and new perspectives across dermatology and skin health.

ISD at ICCE 2026
September 9–11, 2026
Cairo, Egypt

The International Society of Dermatology traces its origins to Aldo Castellani’s 1929 proposal for an international association devoted to tropical dermatology, an idea his colleagues reportedly considered impractical. The project was subsequently interrupted by war. In 1954, Castellani revived the initiative with his former student Frederick Reiss. Castellani provided the longstanding vision, while Reiss became its principal organizer, recruiting dermatologists, mycologists, leprologists, and other specialists from around the world. The organization was formally established in 1959 as the International Society of Tropical Dermatology. The organizing committee included prominent individuals: Drs. George C. Andrews, Anthony C. Cipollaro, and J. Lowry Miller.
At the Society’s first meetings in New York in 1960, Castellani was elected its inaugural president, Reiss was appointed secretary-general, and Castellani delivered the organization’s first scientific paper. By its inaugural gathering that May, the Society counted approximately 1,300 charter members from more than fifty countries. Its motto called upon members to “Gather to Conquer the Hateful Arrows of Disease.”
The Society represented far more than a new professional association. Castellani and Reiss were establishing an early and influential institutional framework for global dermatology.

It began as an idea others thought was impractical.
In 1929, Aldo Castellani envisioned an international society devoted to tropical dermatology.

Three decades later, that vision became global.
By 1960, the Society had nearly 1,300 members from more than 50 countries.
Castellani’s greatest legacy was not an eponym—it was an institution.
His vision ultimately became today’s International Society of Dermatology.

Prof. Dr. Mustafa Turhan Sahin was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1963. He completed his medical education at Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine in Kayseri, Turkey, in 1989. He subsequently completed his dermatology residency at Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Medicine in Izmir, Turkey, between 1992 and 1997.

During his residency, he was mentored by Professor Dr. Ali Tahsin Gunes, who had modified a colposcope into a dermoscope using an external light source. Between 1994 and 1997, Prof. Dr. Sahin conducted his thesis research entitled Dermoscopy in Melanocytic Melanotic Lesions. This was the first thesis on dermoscopy in Turkey.

Throughout his academic career, he has presented numerous studies and case reports on dermoscopy at national and international congresses. He has also served as an instructor and delivered lectures in many dermoscopy courses organized as part of national congresses and regional scientific meetings.

He currently works as a Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine in Manisa, Turkey.

Prof. Dr. Sahin is a member of several national and international professional organizations, including the Dermatovenereology Association of Turkey, Turkish Dermatology Association, Turkish Dermatopathology Association, Turkish Skin and Venereologic Diseases Association, International Society of Dermatology (ISD), where he serves on the Regional Meeting Committee, European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV), and American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), of which he has been a member since 2001.

He is also a Board Member of the International Dermoscopy Society (IDS).

His main area of interest is dermoscopy, alongside nevi, malignant melanoma, wound healing, clinical dermatology, and dermatosurgery.