Robert Dworkin

Dr. Dworkin has spent over 35 years conducting clinical research on pain. He is currently Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry, and Professor in the Center for Health + Technology, at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

He holds additional roles as the Director of the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION) public-private partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Special Government Employee of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research; and Associate Editor of Pain and a member of the Editorial Boards of Canadian Journal of Pain and Journal of Pain. Among his many awards, Dr. Dworkin received the American Pain Society’s Wilbert E. Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award in 2005 and John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award in 2014, the American Academy of Neurology’s Mitchell B. Max Award for Neuropathic Pain in 2015, and the International Association for the Study of Pain’s John D. Loeser Award in 2020.

Dr. Dworkin received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and he has served as a consultant to numerous pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the development and evaluation of analgesic treatments. He has been the principal investigator for a large number of clinical trials funded by government and industry, which have examined treatments for various types of pain. The primary focus of Dr. Dworkin’s current research involves the identification of factors that optimize clinical trials by improving researchers’ ability to measure pain and to better detect treatment effects.