Stefania Jabłońska (1920-2017): A giant in 20th century dermatology

Abstract

Stefania Jabłońska (1920-2017) is remembered as a physician extraordinaire, outstanding medical scientist, and superb professor of dermatology. She served as Professor and Chairman of Dermatology at the Warsaw Medical School. Not only is she one of the most cited of Polish physicians, she also was world renowned, being elected to honorary membership in innumerable dermatology societies. Jabłońska in 1972 was the first to describe the relationship between the human papillomavirus and skin cancer in epidermodysplasia verruciformis. She collaborated with Professor Gérard Charles Jacques Orth (1936-), with whom she characterized the molecular structure of the oncogenic virus to be the first to be discovered in dermatologic diseases. They also showed that a viral infection could not spread to people with different genetic patterns. For this discovery, Jabłońska and Orth in 1985 were awarded the Robert Koch Medal, which was presented to them by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (1920-2015). Jabłońska is the only Polish scientist to be so honored.