Dr. Steven G. Silverberg grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he graduated from Brooklyn College in 1958. He entered The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the intent of becoming an academic psychiatrist doing basic research, was soon disabused of both of these notions and, after a medical internship, trained in Anatomic Pathology at Yale and what was then known as Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases.

Dr. Silverberg was fortunate in being sent by the US Air Force for two years as a pathologist in Japan, where he was introduced to his future (and present) wife, Kiyoe, as well as to many young and older Japanese colleagues who have remained good friends over the years. After Japan, he began his academic career at the Medical College of Virginia and moved subsequently to the University of Colorado, where he became Professor of Pathology and Director of the Colorado Regional Cancer Center. The latter experience reaffirmed his interest in clinical oncology and lack of interest in administration.

In 1981 he became Director of Anatomic Pathology at The George Washington University, and in 1966 at the University of Maryland, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. In all of these situations he has had the good fortune to be stimulated intellectually by mentors, colleagues and students, who unfortunately are too numerous to be listed here but do include among mentors two former Distinguished Pathologist awardees, Drs. Leopold G. Koss (2001) and Stephen S. Sternberg (2011).

Although Dr. Silverberg is often thought of as a gynecologic and breast pathologist, he has always considered himself a general anatomic pathologist with special interest in the female genital tract and breast, and indeed over one-fourth of his more than 220 published articles have dealt with other topics (including cytopathology and autopsy pathology). His published research includes ground-breaking articles on the relation of both oral contraceptives and postmenopausal estrogens to endometrial carcinoma; the first studies to clearly separate the prognostic implications of pure intraductal, minimally and fully invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast; the first to suggest the relationship of atypical endometriosis to certain types of ovarian and peritoneal carcinomas, and widely used grading systems for epithelial ovarian cancers and noninvasive endocervical glandular lesions. He has also been the author or co-author of nine books and numerous chapters and editorials. His books include Silverberg's Principles and Practice of Surgical Pathology and Cytopathology, which is currently going into its Fifth Edition, edited now by Dr. Mark Wick, and was the first multiauthored surgical pathology text, the first to include cytopathology, and the first to devote separate chapters to medical and surgical diseases of the lung, liver and kidney. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Fourth Series AFIP Atlas of Tumor Pathology and of the journal Pathology Case Reviews.

Dr. Silverberg has been privileged to participate in the education of hundreds of residents and fellows, as well as about eighty visiting fellows from abroad, over half of whom have come from Japan. His postgraduate courses for USCAP, ASCP, and other organizations have also provided educational support for hundreds, if not thousands, of pathologists over the years. As a result of these activities, he has received several local best resident teacher awards as well as the Harry P. Smith educator award of the ASCP and its ASCP Master designation. He has also been elected as an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of the UK. The Silverberg Award for lifetime achievement in surgical pathology is awarded annually to a distinguished Japanese pathologist by the Japanese Division of the IAP.

In addition to USCAP, Steve Silverberg is a member of numerous other pathology and gynecologic oncology societies, has served on committees and task forces of all of them, and has served as President/Chairman of the Association of Directors of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology (ADASP), International Society of Gynecological Pathologists, International Society of Breast Pathology, and the Mid-Atlantic Gynecologic Oncology Society. Since 1999 he has been the Pathology Referee for the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), and he has also been a pathology reviewer for the Japanese GOG since 2007.

Probably his major source of amazement over his working years, however, has been the realization that universities have been willing to pay him for having so much fun as a pathologist. He currently lives most of each year in northern Japan, returning to the Washington-Baltimore area to avoid heavy winter snow, see old friends, and teach, although not necessarily in that order of importance.