Barbara A. Gilchrest, M.D. received her undergraduate and medical training from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School, respectively. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Howard Green at MIT, Dr. Gilchrest joined the Department of Dermatology and Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School in 1977. There, she established a tissue culture laboratory to study the aging process in human skin with support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA.) From 1985 until 2008, Dr. Gilchrest served as Professor and Chairman of Dermatology at the Boston University School of Medicine, where she directed a large laboratory and an NIH sponsored post-doctoral research training program. Her laboratory studied cellular aging, regulation of melanogenesis, and telomere-based protective responses in the skin; complementary clinical research interests focused on therapeutic uses of light in dermatology. She remained as Professor on a part time basis until 2014 while serving as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology from 2012 to 2017. In 2015, she joined the Department of Dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and HMS.

Dr. Gilchrest is the author of over 400 scholarly articles, reviews, abstracts, and textbook chapters, and author or editor of eight books. She has served in leadership positions for all major dermatologic organizations in the U.S., on the National Advisory Council on Aging and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, as associate editor or editorial board member of several major clinical and research journals, as a consultant or scientific advisory board member for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and as a member of the MIT Corporation (1995-2005.) Dr. Gilchrest is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a Charter member of the National Academy of Inventors.