Richard Scolyer

Richard Anthony Scolyer (born 16 December 1966 ) is an Australian pathologist. He is a senior staff specialist in tissue pathology and diagnostic oncology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, co-medical director at the Melanoma Institute Australia, and Cojoint professor at the University of Sydney.

Career
Scolyer provides a clinical consultation service for the diagnosis of difficult pigmented lesions and receives more than 2000 cases for opinion from Australasia and beyond annually. He integrates his clinical practice with co-leading a translational melanoma research laboratory.

In February 2019, he was ranked the world's 10th leading publisher on the topic of melanoma and the world's leading publisher in melanoma pathology. Scolyer has co-authored more than 700 publications and book-chapters on the subject, and was an editor of the 4th Edition of the WHO Classification of Tumours.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment
Scolyer was diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer, glioblastoma IDH wild-type, in June 2023. He underwent combination immunotherapy before surgical excision, a sequence Prof. Scolyer and his colleagues have applied successfully for melanoma, but is non-standard for brain cancer due to concerns about toxicity, whether drugs will reach the brain, and speed of tumour development. As of twelve months after surgery, Prof. Scolyer's cancer has not returned, a promising result with potentially broader implications, though oncologists warn that it is too early to judge effectiveness versus standard protocols.

Awards and recognition
Scolyer received the New South Wales Premier's Award for Outstanding Cancer Research in 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to medicine, particularly in the field of melanoma and skin cancer, and to national and international professional organisations" in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours.

He was named 2024 Australian of the Year alongside Georgina Long.