The Milton Bixler Hartzell Professorship of Therapeutic Research

Milton Bixler Hartzell

The Professorship was established in 1929 to honor the memory of Milton Bixler Hartzell, MD (1854–1927), who served as Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine from 1910 to 1921.

In 1917, Dr. Hartzell helped organize the Laboratory of Dermatological Research at the School, establishing the first laboratory in the country devoted to the treatment and cure of skin diseases. He encouraged the publication of all of the Laboratory’s findings and initiated its first publication on the treatment of blisters. Also a distinguished pathologist, Dr. Hartzell was renowned for photomicrographs of pathologic-histologic sections.


 

CotsarelisCurrent Chairholder
George Cotsarelis, MD

George Cotsarelis, MD serves as the Milton Bixler Hartzell Professor and Chair of Dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Cotsarelis is a leading researcher in hair loss and skin regeneration and has run an NIH-funded laboratory at Penn for over 20 years. Early in his career, Dr. Cotsarelis discovered stem cells in the cornea and hair follicle which improved treatments for certain types of blindness and launched the field of hair follicle stem cell research. His research has resulted in the development of potential new treatments for hair loss, wound healing, and skin aging that are undergoing clinical trials.

Dr. Cotsarelis received his BA and MD at Penn. After a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Physicians, he joined the faculty in 1996 and became Chair of the Department in 2010. He is a world expert on hair loss and sees patients with alopecia at Penn.

Previous Chairholders

  • Isaac Starr, MD 1933–1948
  • Seymour S. Cohen, MD 1963–1971
  • Gerald S. Lazarus, MD 1982–1993
  • John R. Stanley, MD 1995–2010