Associate Professor Rosemary Nixon
ICDRG 2009-ongoing

Rosemary Nixon AM is the only medical practitioner to have attained Australian specialist qualifications in both dermatology and occupational medicine, and has had a long interest in occupational dermatology and contact dermatitis, having trained in London with Drs Richard Rycroft and Etain Cronin in 1989. She has been patch testing since 1987 and started Australasia’s only Occupational Dermatology Clinic in 1993.

In 2001, she established a small research group in occupational dermatology, the Occupational Dermatology Research and Education Centre (ODREC) (www.occderm.asn.au).at the Skin and Cancer Foundation, which has recently been renamed the Skin Health Institute. She has authored over 150 scientific papers and book chapters. Her group has established a web-based database, and runs a very active Contact Allergen Bank facilitating patch testing for Australian dermatologists, allied with regular educational activities. She has mentored many young dermatologists in patch testing, from locally and overseas, including Thailand, UK, Israel, the Philippines, Singapore, Nepal, Peru and Canada. She has been active in the Australasian College of Dermatologists including being a past examiner and Faculty Chair (Victoria) and is an honorary Clinical Associate Professor with both Monash University and the University of Melbourne. She commenced as President of the Skin Health Institute in December, 2019.

She was a visiting dermatologist at Prince Henry’s Hospital from 1988-1991 and then Unit Head, Dermatology at Monash Medical Centre from 1991-2001 and was a Visiting Dermatologist at Monash Health from 1991 until 2016.

In 2009, she was appointed to the ICDRG. She has been awarded several prizes for her research including the Jan Wahlberg prize, European Society of Contact Dermatitis (2008) and Eminent Scientist of the Year in Dermatology and Occupational Health 2009 (International Research Promotion Council). She was awarded the Special Recognition award of the Skin and Cancer Foundation Inc in 2016, the Silver Medal of the Australasian College of Dermatologists in 2017 (their highest award) and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2017 for “significant service in the field of community health to occupational dermatology, including as an academic and a researcher, and to professional standards”.