Professor Jan Eric Wahlberg (1932-2005)
ICDRG (until 2005)

Professor Jan Wahlberg worked as occupational dermatologist at the Karolinska Institute and at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. He defended his thesis on the percutaneous absorption of metal compounds in 1966. In 1967 he was appointed Associate Professor and in 1981, full Professor at the Institute. In 1978-1979 he worked as Visiting Professor at University of California, San Francisco, USA. His research focus included occupational contact dermatitis and dermatotoxicology. Under his guidance, a large number of research projects was completed and he published in areas such as colophony allergy, atopy in relation to occupational contact dermatitis, latex allergy, effect of protective gloves, contact allergy to photochemicals, cutaneous exposure to solvents, predictive test methods and new non-invasive bioengineering methods for studying skin under various experimental conditions. Jan was a dedicated researcher with a focus on detail and was very supportive of all his younger colleagues in Sweden and abroad. He authored several hundred scientific articles and book chapters and was member of the International Contact Dermatitis Research group (ICDRG) and the European and Environmental Contact Dermatitis Research Group (EECDRG).

The ESCD have commemorated his memory with a prize in his name of 1000 euros, awarded by a panel of experts and presented to a researcher under 45 years old, for work that has been published, or submitted for publication in the field of contact dermatitis. The winner presents their work in a keynote lecture at the ESCD meeting.

Magnus Bruze and Klaus Andersen