Professor Michael Tharp, MD

Michael D. Tharp, MD is Clark W. Finnerud, M.D. Professor and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Tharp graduated cum laude from both Ohio Wesleyan University and from Ohio State University Medical School in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He completed three years of internal medicine training at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, before finishing a dermatology residency and fellowship at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina in 1980. Dr. Tharp is board certified in both specialties.

He served on the faculty as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Departments of Dermatology and Internal Medicine at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas for seven years prior to becoming Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh in 1987. Dr. Tharp moved to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in 1995 where he is presently the Clark W. Finnerud M.D., Professor and Chair in the Department of Dermatology.

Dr. Tharp has written over 180 papers, book chapters, books and abstracts. He is the Chief Editor of Dermatologic Therapy, the immediate past President of the Dermatology Foundation, and past President of the Association of Professors of Dermatology (APD) and Chicago Dermatological Society. He also is a past Vice President of the Society of Investigative Dermatology, a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Dermatology Foundation, a past Board member of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Dr. Tharp has served on numerous committees for the AAD, Association of Professors of Dermatology and American Dermatological Association.

He has been an invited speaker for numerous national and international meetings including the AAD, ADA, APD, numerous dermatology state society meetings and the International Congress of Dermatology. His primary research interest is in mast cells as they relate to urticaria, pruritus, atopic dermatitis, and mastocytosis. His clinical research interests include itch, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and immune bullous diseases.