In Memory of Juan Rosai, MD

Juan Rosai, MD (August 1940 - July 2020) was an Italian-born American physician who contributed to clinical research and education in the specialty of surgical pathology. He was the principal author and editor of a major textbook in that field, and he characterized novel medical conditions such as Rosai-Dorfman disease and the desmoplastic small round cell tumor.

Dr. Dr. Juan Rosai, born in a village in Tuscany, near Florence, Italy, in 1940, immigrated with his family to Argentina at age 8, where he attended medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. He enhanced his training as a pathologist in the United States under the tutelage of another legendary pathologist, Lauren V. Ackerman, where he naturalized and exercised much of his career.

His Surgical Pathology book is a precious guide for pathologists of any age and level of experience.

Resolutive, practical and active, Dr. Rosai mentored many renowned pathologists, performing at Cornell, Minnesota, Yale, Washington and the Sloan-Kettering Memorial in NYC. His lectures were real shows, making him a teacher in the literal sense of the word.

He described many diseases, including Rosai-Dorfman disease and small-cell tumor demoplastic.

In recent years he returned to his native country, where he was director of the International Center of Oncologic Pathology Consultations of the Italian Diagnostic Center in Milan.“