John Pawelek, PhD is a long-time member of the research faculty in the Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine. His current research interests focus on cancer cell fusion with migratory white blood cells as a mechanism of metastasis. He has authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of skin pigmentation and melanoma and is past president of the Pan American Society for Pigment Cell Research. He has published seminal works on melanocortin-1 receptors, melanocortin action and UV light, and the enzymology of melanogenesis--including discovery of the melanogenesis enzyme dopachrome tautomerase. He has won several awards for this work, including the PASPCR Career Achievement Award, the IFPCS inaugural award of the Henry Stanley Raper Medal, and the Japanese Society for Pigment Cell Research award of the Takeuchi Medal. He was honored in June, 2010 when the inaugural “John M. Pawelek Lecture” was presented at the 4th Meeting of the ASPCR in Guanzhou, China. He frequently lectures at scientific conferences in the US and abroad.