Doctor Ishak immigrated to the United States in 1957 where he received his training in pathology at the Baptist Memorial Hospital, San Antonio, TX, and Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX. After board certification in anatomic and clinical pathology he spent two years at the Postgraduate School, Baylor University (Dallas), where he obtained a Ph.D. in microbiology.

In 1963 Dr. Ishak joined the staff of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. He was appointed Chief of the Department of Hepatic and Pediatric Pathology (later Hepatic Pathology) in 1965, and has been Chairman of the Department of Hepatic and Gastrointestinal Pathology since 1990. He is a charter member of the Senior Executive Service of the U.S. Civil Service. Dr. Ishak is a member of numerous professional societies, and has been a member of the International Liver Study Group, “the Gnomes,” since 1979. Doctor Ishak’s external appointments include Clinical Professor of Pathology, Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, and Professional Lecturer, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY.

Doctor Ishak’s professional interests are clinico-pathologic studies of drug-induced hepatic injury, viral and other infectious diseases of the liver, benign and malignant tumors and the inherited metabolic diseases of the liver. He has authored or co-authored some 300 scientific publications. Dr. Ishak co-edited, with Professor Kkunio Okuda, a book entitled “Neoplasms of the Liver” (Tokyo, Springer-Verlag, 1987). He completed the revision of the WHO “Histological Classification of Tumours of the Liver” (Berlin, Spring-Verlag) in 1994. He is one of the editors of the 4th Edition of the book “Pathology of the Liver” published by Churchill Livingstone in 2001; he also co-authored three of the chapters of all four editions of that authoritative textbook. The third edition of the AFIP Fascicle “Tumors of the Liver and Intrahepatic Bile Ducts,” authored by Drs. Ishak, Goodman and Stocker, was published in 2001.

The educational activities of Dr. Ishak include numerous lectures, courses and slide seminars at scientific meetings, both national and international. He has given 39 Short Courses on hepatic pathology at the U.S./Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) over a span of 30 years. Additionally, Dr. Ishak was on the faculty of the USCAP “Diagnostic Pathology” course in 1988 and 1989, and co-moderated the “Liver Specialty Conference” at the USCAP annual meetings in 1989 and 1990. An annual “Hepatic Pathology Course,” under the sponsorship of the AFIP and the American Association of the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), has been planned and co-directed by Dr. Ishak for 23 years. In 1985, and again in 1998, he planned and co-directed the “Annual Postgraduate Course” of the AASLD in Chicago. With Drs. Bloomer and Goodman, Dr. Ishak co-edited the Syllabus of the AASLD Postgraduate Course, 1998, published in full color by the AASLD, ARP and AFIP. Dr. Ishak gave the 35th and 44th Annual Slide Seminars of the San Antonio Society of Pathologists, San Antonio, TX in 1978 and 1987 respectively. He was prelector of the Third Annual “Spring Anatomic Slide Seminar-Diseases of the Liver,” with the late Dr. Robert Peters, that was held in Atlanta, GA, in 1980, and was also prelector, with Dr. Jurgen Ludwig, of the “Fall Slide Seminar on Diseases of the Liver, ASCP/CAP,” held in Las Vegas, NV in 1988.

Doctor Ishak has received many honors and awards. The Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh awarded him the “Robert S. Totten Visiting Professorship in Pathology” in 1989. Dr. Ishak was awarded the “F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award” of the U.S./Canadian Academy of Pathology in 1991, and more recently the “Recognition Award” of the Society. He received the “Decoration for Meritorious Civilian Service” and the “Decoration for “Exceptional Civilian Service,” Department of the Army, in 1968 and 1972 respectively. In 1987 Dr. Ishak received the “Presidential Rank Award, Meritorious Executive” of the Senior Executive Service. He was the recipient of the John Shaw Billings’ “Lifetime Achievement Award” of the AFIP in 1997, and the “Distinguished Service Award” of the AASLD in 1998. In February 1999 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in London, U.K. A lecture named after Dr. Ishak was established in 1999 and is given by a pathologist (selected by a special committee) at the annual meeting of the Arab Division of the International Academy of Pathology. In 2001 Dr. Ishak again was awarded the “Presidential Rank Award, Meritorious Executive” of the Senior Executive Service.