Dr. Lars E French, Professor of Dermatology at the Dr. Phillip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, is an internationally renowned board-certified dermatologist and physician-scientist with extensive experience. Professor French graduated from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and trained there in internal medicine, basic research, and dermatology. He established his own investigative dermatology research group with support from the Swiss National Science Foundation, then spent a year as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania before becoming Louis-Jeantet Professor of Medicine (Dermatology) at the University of Geneva (2002–2006). He later chaired the Zurich University Hospital Department of Dermatology (2006–2018) and from 2018 to 2025 led the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, one of Europe’s largest, treating over 80,000 outpatients and 3,000 inpatients annually.
Professor French is a renowned clinical expert in the field of inflammatory skin diseases and his team is engaged in competitive translational and clinical research in the fields of inflammatory skin disease, tumor immunology and molecular profiling of skin disease to facilitate disease diagnosis/stratification, drug development and the implementation of precision medicine. He is the author of over 550 original publications with an h-index of 70, over 20000 citations, and is ranked by Stanford University among the top 2% of scientists globally – all disciplines confounded. At an international level Professor French holds numerous international dermatology leadership roles, including past and current presidencies, treasurerships, and board memberships in major European and global societies, notably the ILDS, representing 205 organizations and over 200,000 dermatologists worldwide.
