John M. Kirkwood, MD, is Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Usher Professor of Medicine, Dermatology, and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He took his medical degree at Yale University (1973) and completed fellowship in Medical Oncology at Harvard/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (1978). Dr. Kirkwood served as the founding Associate Director and Chief of Medical Oncology at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center where he has directed the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program since 1986 and served as PI of the University of Pittsburgh Melanoma and Skin Cancer SPORE (2008-2018), and co-PI of the MSCP SPORE (2021-2026). He is PI at the University of Pittsburgh for ECOG-ACRIN since 1989 and Co-PI of the Lead Academic Performing Site (LAPS) at the U of Pittsburgh. He has been Chairman of the ECOG-ACRIN Melanoma Committee (1989-2019) and is Chairman of the ECOG-ACRIN Therapeutic Prevention Subcommittee (2019-present). He founded the International Melanoma Working Group with AIM at Melanoma in 2005 and has chaired this since, and the tri-state Regional Melanoma Translational Research Consortium (2014-present). Dr. Kirkwood's research has developed immunotherapy and molecular therapy of advanced melanoma, and pioneered adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies for operable disease, including the first and the most recently FDA approved therapies of melanoma; he has led over 300 trials of investigational therapy to date. He has turned to therapeutic prevention and early detection for melanoma over the past decade and recently launched the first prevention trial for melanoma in the cooperative group ECOG-ACRIN. He was elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2015 and the Giants of Cancer Care in 2016, receiving the Mac Cheever award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer in 2025. He is a member of multiple professional organizations including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and the Society for Melanoma Research. He has prioritized mentorship of fellows, residents, and students over the years—many of whom now lead melanoma programs across the world.