Curtis Cole, PhD

Curtis Cole, PhD

Guest Speaker

Dr. Cole is currently President/Principal Member of Sun & Skin Consulting, LLC, providing consulting services primarily in the area of sunscreen testing and training to sunscreen testing laboratories, and sunscreen development to sunscreen manufacturers and formulators. He has been a US delegate to ISO TC217 WG7 Committee developing sunscreen testing standards since 2007. He was project leader for the development of ISO24444:2019, ISO24443:2012, and ISO24442:2010 standards. Before starting his consulting company, Curtis was the Vice President of Research and Development at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products SkinCare and worked for J&J for a over 27 years developing and evaluating sunscreen products, seeking innovation and discovery of therapeutic skin care technologies for J&J’s many skin care brands in all categories. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Gordon College, and continued his education at Temple University in Biophysics while working full time in the Dermatology Department of the Temple Medical School researching the effects of ultraviolet light on skin, both acute (sunburn) and chronic (skin cancer). He published the first definitive action spectrum for squamous cell skin cancer induction as a result of the work there at the Temple Medical School in 1986. After receiving his Doctoral Degree in Biophysics, he joined Johnson & Johnson and developed new test methods and instrumentation for sunscreens. His work during the 1990’s and 2000 eras resulted in the development and marketing of the first stabilized retinol products for photodamaged and aging skin, and development of the patented Neutrogena Helioplex™ photostabilized sunscreens. He has received 21 granted patents with another 30 pending patents in application. He has been active in Photobiology for over 40 years with many publications in the field of sunscreens, aging skin and skin treatment technologies, and an active member in the Photomedicine Society. He has participated in numerous industry collaborative initiatives in sunscreen evaluation method development. Recently retired from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Curt is now doing private consulting work in the areas of sun protection, developing new technologies for sunscreen assessment, and new ISO standards.