A trustee since 1996, Bickers is the Carl Truman Nelson Professor and chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University Medical Center, where he also serves as chair and director of the Residency Program, and dermatologist-in-chief at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Bickers is a leading researcher in environmental carcinogenesis and photobiology. His father, William M. Bickers, was the chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the American University Hospital (since renamed the AUB Medical Center). He is a graduate of Georgetown University (AB ’63) and the University of Virginia School of Medicine (MD ’67).