Hensin Tsao, M.D. Ph.D., graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a degree in Biochemistry and English. In 1993, he graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons with an MD degree and Columbia University Graduate School of Arts of Sciences with a PhD degree in Biophysics/Biochemistry. Dr. Tsao completed one year of clinical training in internal medicine and three years of dermatology residency, including a one-year Melanoma Fellowship, in the Harvard-affiliated hospitals. He concluded his training with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 2001, Dr. Tsao joined the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology at MGH, where he established the Skin Cancer Genetics Laboratory and the MGH Melanoma Genetics Program in order to better understand the molecular basis of melanoma predisposition, progression and therapeutic response. He has been continuously funded for his research by various organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the American Skin Association, the Dermatology Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Department of Defense and the Melanoma Research Alliance. In addition to his scientific program, in 2005, he became the Director of the MGH Melanoma and Pigmented Lesion Center, which is the oldest multidisciplinary melanoma unit in the country. Since 2007, Dr. Tsao has been Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Tsao is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, abstracts, textbook chapters and online media texts. He has also delivered well over 130 presentations on melanoma, genetics and skin disease throughout the world including many keynote, plenary and named lectureships. He has received numerous awards including the Alfred Steiner Dean’s Award and Titus Munson Coan Prize from Columbia University, the Deborah Shalita Marmour Clinical Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation, the Young Investigator Award and the Marion Sulzberger Award from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), the D.M. Carter Award and the Howard Milstein Innovation Award from the American Skin Association and the MGH Partners-in-Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation and the MGH Cancer Center’s “100” Award. For his clinical and scientific contributions, Dr. Tsao was selected as one of Boston’s Top Doctors in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and inducted into the American Dermatological Association and the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Dr. Tsao serves or has served on numerous committees in the American Academy of Dermatology. He is or has been the Chair of the AAD Melanoma/Skin Cancer Committee, Chair of the AAD Education Committee, Chair of the AAD Task Force on the ABCDE’s of Melanoma and a Member of the Melanoma Guidelines Committee, AAD Council on Science and Research and Council on Communication. He was Chair of the Education Committee for the Society for Investigative Dermatology and a Member of the Melanoma/Skin Cancer Committee of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Dr. Tsao is also one of Directors of the American Board of Dermatology. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Journal Watch/Dermatology, an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Dermatology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and the International Journal of Oncology. Dr. Tsao has served or continues to serve on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the Dermatology Foundation, the American Cancer Society and Cancer UK. On a grassroots level, he is on the Medical Advisory Board of the Melanoma Foundation of New England.