Joel Palefsky is Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized expert on the molecular biology, treatment, pathogenesis and natural history of anogenital human papillomavirus infections, particularly in the setting of HIV infection. He is the Founder and Director of the world's first clinic devoted to prevention of anal cancer, the Anal Neoplasia Clinic Research and Education Center at the UCSF Cancer Center, and the Vice-Chair of the National Cancer Institute-supported AIDS Malignancy Consortium. He is the Chair of the Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) Study, a national multi-site NIH study designed to determine whether treatment of anal cancer precursor lesions prevents the development of anal cancer and to identify biomarkers of progression. He is Founder and past President of the International Anal Neoplasia Society, past President of the International Papillomavirus Society, and Founder and Chairperson of the IPVS International HPV Awareness Campaign.