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People in Epidemiology
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Honored:
Laurence Kolonel, University of Hawaii
Professor, with an award for excellence in cancer
epidemiology and prevention given by the American
Association for Cancer Research and the American
Cancer Society. Kolonel was to be honored and speak in
Washington DC in early April on a topic entitled
“Advancing Epidemiologic Research: Studies in
‘Special’ Populations.”
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Profiled:
Susan Baker, Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health injury epidemiologist, in the spring issue
of the Johns Hopkins Magazine. Baker has made a
long career of studying injuries and her large
body of work made it legitimate for
epidemiologists to work in the field, according to
one of her colleagues. Baker is still active
studying fatalities caused by fires and
sightseeing flights.
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Profiled:
Ross Brownson, Washington University in St
Louis, by the University’s Newsroom. The article
traces Brownson’s career through both public health
and academic work. According to the article, “And it
is his demeanor — calm, amiable, unflappable — that,
when combined with his experience in both the public
sector and academia, makes him uniquely situated to
effect real change in public health from his office as
co-director of the Prevention Research Center in St.
Louis.” [
http://tinyurl.com/crfznma
]
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Passed and Honored: Steve Thacker,
Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA.
From our recent article on Steve's honor just
prior to his passing:
A
moving ceremony was held on Tuesday morning to recognize
and celebrate the outstanding epidemiology career of CDC's
Steve Thacker. The beloved epidemiologist, who was
recently diagnosed with the rapidly progressive and always
fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, served at CDC in multiple
high level positions including stewardship of the Epidemic
Intelligence Service (EIS) program and
the Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report.
He was a colleague and mentor to hundreds of established
and budding epidemiologists around the world. Last week
Thacker received the Surgeon General's medallion which is
the highest award of the Public Health Service and two
awards are being created at CDC in his name. At the CDC
ceremony, CDC Director Tom Frieden stated simply that much
of what CDC is today comes from Steve's work. As one
colleague put it most simply and eloquently, Steve has
been a "pillar" of CDC.
For a sampling of the hundreds of testimonials from
colleagues sent to his family at their website, click
below.
http://www.teamthacker.com/guestbook/
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Passed:
Robert Millikan, Professor of cancer
epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, on
October 7, 2012. His work focused on better
understanding and treatment of breast cancer,
particularly for African American women. According to
UNC’s dean, “The nation has lost a brilliant, humane
public health leader.” |
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Presenter:
David Williams, Harvard Professor of Public
Health, at Yale’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds in May.
According to Williams, “Your zip code is a more
powerful predictor of you health than your genetic
code…in some states, there is a 13 year difference
in life expectancy based on what county you live
in.” |
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Milestone:
Dr. Warren Winkelstein Jr.,
professor emeritus of epidemiology and a former dean
at the University of California, Berkeley, who is
credited with leading definitive studies on AIDS
transmission, air pollution and other health issues,
died Sunday, July 22. He was 90.
Winkelstein’s distinguished career
spanned six decades and was marked by numerous
accomplishments, such as leading the landmark San
Francisco Men’s Health Study that began in the early
1980s.
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Milestone:
Epidemiologist
R. Palmer Beasley,
whose pivotal research on hepatitis B in Taiwan
first linked the virus to liver cancer, died of
pancreatic cancer at his Houston home. He was 76.
Beasley, who was dean of the
University of Texas Health Science Center School
of Public Health
for nearly 20 year, made his mark in the 1970s
with a series of studies that proved the cancer
link and also discovered how Asian children were
infected with hepatitis B during childbirth by
their mothers who were carriers.
At the time of Beasley's
death, he was director of
UT School of Public Health's
Center for International Training and
Research and the Ashbel Smith Professor of
Epidemiology. His work on hepatitis B has been
recognized with several medical awards, including
the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine,
the Charles S. Mott Prize and the Maxwell Finland
Award for Scientific Achievement. |
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Honored:
Bruce Lanphear, Professor at Simon Fraser
University, with an award of the Nora and Ted Sterling
Prize in Support of Controversy. The unusual prize is
given to a university person who provokes and/or
contributes to the understanding of controversy.
Lanphear has been provocative because he has been
highlighting the health effects of even low levels of
exposure to lead. |
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Appointed:
William Maier, as Chief Scientific Officer of
REGISTRAT-MAPI, a global contract research organization.
He was most recently vice-president and head of
epidemiology for the organization, and prior to that
senior director of epidemiology at GlaxoSmithKline and
Elan Pharmaceuticals. He received his PhD in epidemiology
from UNC and an MPH from San Diego State University. |
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Elected:
Barbara Abrams, to the Institute of Medicine.
Dr Abrams is professor of epidemiology, maternal and
child health, and public health nutrition at the
University of California Berkeley. She was cited for
her contributions to maternal and child health
nutrition documenting the association between maternal
weight gain and birth outcomes.
Other epidemiologists also elected to
the IOM this year include JoAnn Manson,
professor in the Harvard School of Public Health and
the Medical School, and Richard Jackson,
professor and chair of the department of environmental
health sciences at UCLA School of Public Health. |
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Honored:
Robert Wallace, by the Institute of Medicine with
the Walsh McDermott medal for his distinguished service to
the IOM over an extended period of time. Dr Wallace holds
the Ensminger Stecher Professorship in Cancer Research at
the University of Iowa College of Public Health. According
to the IOM, his passion for research andexpertise in
preventive medicine and epidemiology makes him a versatile
and productive contributor to the organization. |
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Awarded:
To Charles (Chuck) Ratzlaff, a Research Trainee
Award, for his post-doctoral work to be undertaken on
osteoarthritis of the hip. The award was made by the
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Ratzlaff
is in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Health
Care and Epidemiology at the University of British
Columbia. |
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Appointed:
William Latimer, former director of the Drug
Dependence Epidemiology Training Program at Johns Hopkins
University Bloomberg School of Public Health, as chairman
of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the
University of Florida College of Public Health and Health
Professions. |
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Appointed:
Richard Carmona, former 17th Surgeon General
of the United States from 2002-2006, as chairman of the
Scientific Advisory Board of Schiff Nutrition International,
maker of vitamins, nutritional supplements, and nutrition
bars. Carmona is currently a vice-chairman at Canyon Ranch, a
health and wellness company. |
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Honored:
Joanne Jordan, Director of the Thurston Arthritis
Research Center at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology in the
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, as recipient
of the 2011 Distinguished Service to Rural Life Award from
the Rural Sociological Society. |
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Died:
David Sencer,
86, MD, former Director of the CDC and the New York City
Health Department, on May 2, 201. He was lauded as a “giant of
public health” by current CDC Director Thomas Frieden who
noted Sencer’s contributions to the eradication of smallpox
and the creation of the Emory School of Public Health. |
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Awardee:
Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD, President of the Institute of
Medicine, for the $15,000 Frank Calderone Prize in Public
Health given by Columbia University's school of Public Health
for a "transformational contribution in the field of public
health". The prize will be presented in October 2011. |
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Appointed:
Jill Norris, PhD, MPH, professor of epidemiology,
as new chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado
School of Public Health. Dr. Norris was section head of
the Epidemiology and Community Health Section in the former
Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at Colorado. |
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Awardee:
Margaret Becklake, McGill University epidemiologist,
for the Ordre du Quebec, the province's most prestigious
honor, on June 15 in Quebec City. Becklake received the
highest honor Grand Officer in the Ordre. |
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Awardee:
Pamela Rist, MSc, Harvard School of Public Health, for
the Abraham Lilienfeld Student Prize Paper in General
Epidemiology at the Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for
her work on "Migraine and Functional Outcome From Ischemic
Cerebral Events in Women" published in Circulation in
2010. |
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Awardee:
Shirley Wang, MS, PhD, Brown University, for the Reuel
Stallones Student Prize Paper in Epidemiology Methods at the
Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for her work,
"Future-cases as present controls to adjust for exposure-trend
bias in case-only studies". |
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Awardee:
Maria Argos, Columbia University, for the Carol Buck
Student Prize Paper in International Health at the Congress of
Epidemiology in Montreal for her work "Arsenic exposure from
drinking water, and all cause and chronic disease mortalities
in Bangladesh (HEALS): a prospective study" published in
Lancet in 2010. |
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Awardee:
NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics Training
Program, for the Alexander Langmuir award at the Congress of
Epidemiology in Montreal for Training Program Excellence and
Innovation. |
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Awardee:
Margaret Spitz, MD, MPH, MD Anderson Cancer Center and
Baylor College of Medicine at the Congress of Epidemiology in
Montreal for the Abraham Lilienfeld Award for Overall
Excellence in Epidemiology including teaching, research, and
service. |
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Awardee:
Stephen Walter, PhD, McMaster University, for the
Bernard Goldberg award for Excellence in Methods Development
and Application at the Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal. |
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Awardee:
John Pierce, PhD, University of California Sand Diego
Moores Cancer Center, at the Congress of Epidemiology in
Montreal for the Harold Dorn Award for Translation of
Epidemiologic Evidence Into Public Health Policy and Practice
with measurable impact. |
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Awardee:
Noel Weiss, MD, DrPH, University of Washington, at the
Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for the Alfred S. Evans
Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring in
Epidemiology. |
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Awardee:
Marc Lipsitch, Harvard School of Public Health, at the
Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for the Best Manuscript
published in Epidemiology in 2010, aka the Kenneth
Rothman Prize. His paper is entitled "Negative controls:
A tool for detecting confounding and bias in observational
studies. Co-authors were Eric Tchetgen and Ted Cohen. |
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Awardee:
Tuula Oksanen, Finnish Institute of Occupational
Health, at the Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for the
Best Manuscript published in Annals of Epidemiology in 2010.
The paper is entitled "Self-Report as an Indicator of Incident
Disease" with co-authors Mika Kivimaki, Jaana Pentti, Marianna
Virtanen, Timo Klaukka, and Jussi Vahtera. |
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Awardee:
Jack Siemiatycki, PhD, University of Montreal, at the
Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for the Canadian Society
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Geoffrey Howe Distinguished
Contributions award. |
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Awardee:
Colin Soskolne, PhD, University of Alberta, at the
Congress of Epidemiology in Montreal for the Canadian Society
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Distinguished Service Award. |
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