Honored: Clarice Weinberg,
Ph.D., was awarded the 2024 Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring
Award — the highest honor of its kind to a statistician in
federal, state, or local government. The annual award in
recognition of a mentor’s support and development of
junior staff is presented by the American Statistical
Association.
Weinberg, a principal investigator in the
Biostatistics and Computational Biology Branch, has
mentored nearly 40 students and postdoctoral fellows, and
served on the thesis committees of more than twenty Ph.D.
students during her career at NIEHS. She also has
published and worked with biostatistics and epidemiology
trainees on nearly 200 scientific articles
Honored: The
National Academy of Medicine has announced 100 newly
elected members. Jennifer Nuzzo MA’23, director of
Brown’s Pandemic Center, made the list. Nuzzo, who is also
a professor of epidemiology, was selected after
co-creating the inaugural Global Health Security Index,
which assesses 195 countries’ preparedness for epidemics
and pandemics. She was also highlighted by NAM for her
COVID-19 testing global data tracker, a resilience
checklist for biological emergencies and her extensive
research in US infectious disease threat readiness.
Awarded: The Boston
University Department of Biostatistics is pleased to
announce that Nandita Mitra, PhD will be the
recipient of the 2024 L. Adrienne Cupples Award for
Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service in
Biostatistics. Dr. Mitra is Professor of Biostatistics
Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of
Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
Briefly, the Cupples award was created to recognize a
biostatistician whose academic achievements reflect the
contributions to teaching, research, and service
exemplified by Professor L. Adrienne Cupples. Dr. Mitra
was selected because of her substantial achievements in
each of these areas. Dr. Mitra is currently Vice Chair of
Education and Co-Director of the Center for Causal
Inference in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology
and Informatics at Penn.
Awarded: Trinity
College has awarded alumna Kaja LeWinn the Trinity
College President’s Award for Science and Innovation.
Driven by a conviction that all children should have
the opportunity to realize their full potential, Trinity
College alumna Kaja LeWinn ’98 has dedicated her work to
studying the neurodevelopment and mental health of the
youngest members of society. LeWinn
is a leader of several regional and national
epidemiological studies, including the NIH funded ECHO
Consortium, which includes over 60,000 U.S. children and
their families.
Awarded: University
of California – Merced second-year public health
Ph.D. student Sarina Rodriguez was named as a
Health Policy Research Scholar by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation. The HPRS program supports doctoral students
from underserved and underrepresented demographics and
brings together students from various fields to apply
their expertise to policies that advance equity and
health. According to the foundation’s website, the
leadership program connects “changemakers across the
country — from diverse professions and fields — to learn
from and work with one another in creating more just and
thriving communities.”
Named: Joseph Amon,
PhD, MSPH, has joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health as director of the Center for Public
Health and Human Rights. Amon, whose work focuses on
neglected diseases and populations, comes from Drexel
University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, where he
served in several positions, including director of the
Office of Global Health, director of the Jonathan Mann
Global Health and Human Rights Initiative, and clinical
teaching professor in the Department of Community Health
and Prevention. He is also the editor-in-chief of the
Health and Human
Rights Journal,
which is co-published by Drexel in collaboration with the
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard
University.
Appointed:
Vanderbilt University Dept of Biostatistics
has promoted Brant
Imhoff
to the position of senior biostatistician. His support for
projects at the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating
Center, Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group, and other
teams has included leading DSMB (data and safety
monitoring board) closed session meetings for multiple
clinical trials; constructing, maintaining, and monitoring
electronic data captures; generating statistical analyses,
custom reports, and billing; and working on manuscripts
and study analysis plans, with co-authorship of
peer-reviewed papers published in the
New England Journal of
Medicine,
American Heart Journal,
and BMJ Open.
In the News: Flojaune Cofer,
the epidemiologist and leading candidate in Sacramento’s
mayoral race, will always remember watching her father die
from congestive heart failure in 1993. She was 11, the
same age he’d been when he started smoking cigarettes back
in the late 1950s, when little was known about the health
impacts of tobacco. By the time the Surgeon General issued
the first report on the negative effects of smoking, it
was too late for Cofer’s dad; he was already hooked. The
traumatic experience of seeing her father lose his life
from something so preventable stayed lodged inside Cofer,
pushing her to get a PhD in epidemiology, pursue a career
in public health policy, and eventually get involved in
her adopted city’s budgeting process.
Passed: Richard Allen Cash passed
away on October 22, 2024. He graduated from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, then New York University
School of Medicine. After interning at Bellevue Hospital,
Richard relocated to Dacca, East Pakistan to work at the
Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL): now the International
Centre for Diarrheal Diseases, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). That
decision shaped his career and life. Bangladesh remained a
touchstone in Richard’s life. He returned annually to work
with the ICDDR,B and teach at the BRAC School of Public
Health. He also lived, worked and taught in India.
Beginning in 1977, Richard made Cambridge, Massachusetts
his home base, teaching at the Harvard (T.H. Chan) School
of Public Health and running projects for the Harvard
Institute for International Development. Richard deeply
influenced countless students.
https://tinyurl.com/yxrhr632
Passed: Dr. Frank L. Mitchell,
a dedicated public servant and passionate craftsman,
passed away at the age of 89 on October 13, 2024. In Miami
he was the Senior Medical Officer for the Cuban Rescue
Program, and was on the first flight sent to Cuba to
rescue those fleeing Cuba after its takeover by Fidel
Castro. He later transferred to the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Bethesda, MD
where he served 10 years as the Senior Reviewer of the
team that identified Superfund sites and wrote regulations
for safely dealing with hazardous substances in the
workplace and the environment. He rose to the role of
Chief Medical Officer for the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry in Atlanta. His expertise and
leadership left a lasting impact on Public Health
including his contributions to the treatment and handling
of individuals experiencing Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity.
https://tinyurl.com/58unc5u2
ARCHIVES
Honored: The Royal
Society announced that its Michael Faraday Prize and
Lecture is awarded to Professor
Salim Abdool Karim,
MBChB, FFPHM, PhD, CAPRISA Professor for Global Health in
the Department of Epidemiology at
Columbia University Mailman
School of Public Health. He is also Director of the
Centre for the AIDS Program of
Research in South
Africa (CAPRISA). The honor was bestowed for
Abdool Karim’s scientific leadership, policy advice,
epidemiological analyses, and articulate public education,
while actively countering disinformation in Africa,
particularly South Africa, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Appointed:
Bhramar Mukherjee,
a leader in the field of public health statistics and data
science who recently joined the Yale faculty, has been
appointed the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Biostatistics.
The appointment, which began on Aug. 1, is for a term of
10 years, renewable by the dean of the Yale School of
Public Health (YSPH).
She joined the YSPH faculty last month as
the inaugural senior associate dean of public health data
science and data equity. She assumed the Lauder chair
previously held by Paul Cleary, the school’s former dean.
Appointed: Wiley Jenkins,
Ph.D., has been appointed chair of the Clemson University
Department of Public Health Sciences. His term began July
1.
Jenkins joins Clemson and the College of
Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences (CBSHS) from
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine where he
served as interim chair of the Department of Population
Science and Policy. Prior to his appointment as interim
chair, he worked in the department as a professor and
chief of epidemiology and biostatistics. He has served in
faculty, research and administrative positions in the
public health field for more than 30 years.
Appointed: Michael Bloom,
professor in George Mason University’s Department of
Global and Community Health, was appointed as a member of
the Reproductive, Perinatal and Pediatric Health Study
Section, Population Sciences and Epidemiology Integrated
Review Group, which is part of the National Institutes of
Health Center for Scientific Review.
Appointed: Professor
of public health studies at the University of Hawaiʻi
Mānoa, Tetine Sentell, has been named the inaugural
Chin Sik and Hyun Sook Chung Endowed Chair in Public
Health Studies. This endowment aims to recruit and retain
top faculty in public health, supporting research,
training and scholarship dissemination on critical health
issues in Hawaiʻi
and the Pacific region.
Appointed: Ricardo Izurieta,
MD, DrPH. MPH, an internationally known expert on tropical
and infectious diseases, is leaving his long-time post as
associate professor at the University of South Florida’s
College of Public Health (COPH) to become dean of the new
School of Health Sciences and Public Health at California
State University Los Angeles.
Appointed: In July
2024, Berkeley Public Health welcomed assistant professor
of biostatistics Xiudi Li, PhD. Dr. Li received a
PhD in biostatistics from the University of Washington in
2022 and a BSc in mathematics and economics from Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology in 2017.
Retiring: Jim Tonascia,
whose public health career in biostatistics and
epidemiology spanned more than five decades, retired from
the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins
this August. Tonascia arrived at the School in 1967 as a
graduate student and received his PhD in Biostatistics
from the School in 1970. Since then, he has been faculty
in the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
becoming full professor in 1981.
Passed: Professor
Clair Chilvers, a McPintrustee,
died recently surrounded by her family, aged 78. As a cancer
epidemiologist, first at the Institute of Cancer Research,
then at the University of Nottingham where she was
Professor of Epidemiology, she knew how crucial the
charity Cancer Research UK was for progressing and
understanding treatments for cancer – but mental health
did not have anything like that at the time
Recovering: Dr. Anthony Fauci
is continuing his recovery at home
following a 6 day hospitalization for West Nile Virus.
Insiders report that although he is unsure where he
contracted the virus, the supposition is that he was
bitten by a mosquito in his backyard. The prognosis is
that he will experience a full recovery.
Awarded:
Scott
Proescholdbell, MPH is
a public health epidemiologist and unit manager for the
Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Informatics Unit of DPH’s
Injury and Violence Prevention Branch and has more than 20
years of service with North Carolina. His efforts have
significantly advanced the state’s injury and violence
prevention surveillance, bringing recognition, funding and
policy improvements for critical public health issues,
such as substance use and violence prevention, both within
North Carolina and nationally.
The Ronald H. Levine Public Health Award
recognizes exemplary contributions to public health in
North Carolina. This prestigious award is named for former
State Health Director Dr. Ron Levine.
https://tinyurl.com/4zc9x3d6
Appointed: Yale
School of Public Health has announced the appointment of
Lee Kennedy-Shaffer as an assistant professor in
the department of biostatistics. Kennedy-Shaffer, BS ’13
(mathematics), joins YSPH from Vassar College, where he
has been an assistant professor in the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics since 2020. Prior to that
appointment, he served as a postdoctoral researcher with
the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard.
Appointed: Qiao Liu, PhD
has been appointed an assistant professor in the
department of biostatistics at the Yale School of Public
Health. Liu comes to YSPH from Stanford University, where
he has been a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of
Statistics since 2021. earned a BS from ShenYuan Honors
College at Beihang University in Beijing in 2016 and a PhD
in Bioinformatics from Tsinghua University in Beijing in
2021. Since 2019, Liu has been conducting extensive
research at Stanford Statistics, initially as a visiting
PhD student, and later transitioning into a postdoc.
Awarded: The
Society for Epidemiologic Research presented its Roger
Detels Distinguished Researcher Award in Infectious
Disease Epidemiology to William Schaffner, MD. Dr.
Schaffner is a Professor of Preventive Medicine in the
Department of Health Policy and a Professor of Infectious
Disease at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr.
Schaffner's primary interest has been the prevention of
infectious diseases and he is the current Medical Director
and past president of the National Foundation for
Infectious Diseases and has served on the Executive Board
for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Featured: Zilong Wang,
a Chinese native who was attending Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool
University, has seen his dream come true by gaining
admission to Harvard University’s biostatistics program.
Prior to attending Harvard he also spent a year at
Berkeley. The heartwarming feature story details how is
perseverance helped him overcome the long odds to gain
admission to Harvard. Full article:
https://tinyurl.com/2dn8ah7a
Passed: Retired
NIH biostatistician Raymond Charles Boston of West
Chester, PA passed away on June 29, 2024 in Chestertown,
MD. A native of Melbourne, Australia he became a research
scientist at the National Institute of Health and a
tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania for
the remainder of his career. As a biomathematician and
biostatistician his research included areas ranging from
veterinary to medical to epidemiological issues. Ray
lectured and taught at institutions across the world; from
Glasgow to Taipei to Finland, etc. And most recently in
Melbourne Australia, where he assisted with clinical
research projects at St Vincent’s hospital. In the field
of biomathematical modeling he contributed significantly
to the development of the Winsaam program, used by
research scientists around the world. Ray was also a
member of the prestigious selection committee at the
Franklin Institute.
https://tinyurl.com/2eupt5nr
Passed: VCU
professor David Charles Wheeler III passed away on
June 29th, 2024 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.
David was an internationally recognized biostatistician
with a focus on spatial, cancer, and environmental
epidemiology. He served as the Principal Investigator on
more than 15 major grants most of which were funded by the
National Cancer Institute. His research demonstrated the
importance of considering environmental exposures decades
prior to diagnosis, identifying important historical risk
patterns for cancer (clusters) utilizing environmental
risk analysis and associations between neighborhood
deprivation and myriad health-related outcomes. His
prolific scholarly contributions include 110 peer-reviewed
publications with more than 7,650 citations (to date).
David also served on the Editorial Board of the
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health.
https://tinyurl.com/567jsynd
Awarded: The
American Medical Association (AMA) presented Michael
Osterholm, Ph.D., MPH, with the AMA Award for
Outstanding Government Service. The director of the Center
for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the
University of Minnesota, Osterholm is a renowned
epidemiologist who warned for years that the United States
was ill-prepared for a pandemic. He was appointed to
President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 transition advisory
board, and previously served as science envoy for health
security on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
Awarded:
Principal
scientist Gertjan Medema has been awarded the Lee
Kuan Yew Water Prize 2024 for his groundbreaking research
and significant contributions in the field of sewage
epidemiology for virus detection in wastewater during the
COVID-19 pandemic. With the emergence of COVID-19 in early
2020, Gertjan Medema and his colleagues recognized the
need for early detection and monitoring, and began
collecting sewage samples at nine locations in the
Netherlands to test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The results
were promising as traces of the virus were detected in the
sewage of several cities before they were officially
reported.
Named: Benika Dixon,
an assistant professor at Texas A&M University School of
Public Health, has been named a Kavli Fellow. This
prestigious fellowship, awarded annually by the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS), recognizes the brightest young
scientists who are 45 years old or younger. Her research
focuses on the mental and physical health implications of
environmental exposures, hazards and disasters on
vulnerable populations. Her current work centers
specifically on inmates in the Texas prison system.
Named:
Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht have
announced the appointment of Patricia
Bruijning-Verhagen
as professor of vaccination and infection control
epidemiology, effective June 1, 2024. This position will
enable Patricia to continue her work in designing and
evaluating optimal infection prevention policies through
vaccination and other innovative strategies. Her
appointment comes at a crucial time, as the world faces
the dual challenge of emerging infectious diseases and an
expanding portfolio of vaccines.
Named: Nolan Wages,
Ph.D., a professor in Virginia Commonwealth
University’s Department of Biostatistics in the School of
Population Health, has been named a fellow of the Society
for Clinical Trials. For more than a decade, Wages has
been deeply involved in a national research effort aimed
at revolutionizing how early phase oncology trials are
conducted. His team has not only developed novel methods
but also ensured their successful implementation into
actual trials, where they can improve patient outcomes.
Passed: Richard M. Simon former
NIH biostatistician passed away on May 9, 2024. Richard
was born in St. Louis and graduated from U-City High
school, where he found and mastered a love of mathematics,
cultivated by a 7th grade math teacher. Richard later went
to Washington University where he received a Doctoral
degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. After
a 2-year stint in the Public Health Service in Washington
DC, Rich began working at the National Institute of
Health, where he spent his entire career. As a
biostatistician, Rich became associate director of the
Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, director of
the Biometric Research Program, and chief of the
Computational and Systems Biology Branch. Rich pioneered
many of the statistical methods in cancer clinical trials
used today.
https://tinyurl.com/nhae3sdv
Passed:
Biostatistician Dr. James "Jim" Mason Harper, died
at the age of 71 on May 23rd, 2024, after sixteen years of
living bravely with PLS. Jim earned his Ph.D in
Biostatistics from the University of Pittsburgh, where he
met his wife, Jackie. He spent his career with contract
research organizations, supporting the development and
approval of many new drugs to treat different diseases; he
was proud to have been critical to the approval of the
first drug to treat ALS, which he eventually benefited
from himself.
https://tinyurl.com/yu5hpydr
Named: Shruti Mehta,
PhD, MPH, has been named The Dr. Charles Armstrong Chair
in Epidemiology and Professor in the Department of
Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health, effective June 1. Her work as an infectious
disease epidemiologist focuses on ensuring equitable
access to prevention and treatment services for vulnerable
and disenfranchised populations, particularly people who
inject drugs who are at risk for, or living with, HIV or
hepatitis C.
Named: Washington
University in St. Louis has announced that Sandro Galea,
MD, DrPH, one of the world’s most influential public
health leaders, will become the inaugural Margaret C. Ryan
Dean of the university’s planned School of Public Health,
effective January 1, 2025. Galea is currently dean of
Boston University’s School of Public Health and the Robert
A. Knox Professor. He also is a professor of family
medicine at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian
School of Medicine.
Named: Elizabeth Selvin,
PhD, '04, MPH, has been appointed the next director of the
Welch Center for Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the
Johns Hopkins University, effective May 1, 2024. Selvin is
a professor of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School and
holds a joint appointment in the School of Medicine,
Division of General Internal Medicine. She is the author
or co-author of over 550 peer-reviewed papers. She has
devoted her career to leading translational research
projects designed to evaluate and improve screening,
diagnosis, and patient care for persons with diabetes.
Named: The Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has established a new
Department of Public Health under the visionary leadership
of Rosalind J. Wright, MD, MPH, the Horace W.
Goldsmith Professor in Children’s Health Research at Icahn
Mount Sinai. Dr. Wright will continue in her role as
Director of Conduits, the Clinical and Translational
Science Award (CTSA) Program at Mount Sinai, which will
serve to better integrate the school’s programs in
clinical and public health research.
Appointed: Dr. Weng Kee Wong
has been appointed as the associate editor for the Journal
of the American Statistician Association and Scientific
Reports. A UCLA faculty member, he is currently the
biostatistician for the "Multi-Center Phase II Trial of
Oral Type I Bovine Collagen in Scleroderma" supported by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Appointed: Bhramar Mukherjee,
PhD, has been appointed Yale School of Public Health’s
inaugural Senior Associate Dean of Public Health Data
Science and Data Equity. She joins YSPH on Aug. 1, 2024.
Mukherjee currently holds a number of academic positions
at the University of Michigan School of Public Health
where she is the John D. Kalbfleisch Distinguished
University Professor, Siobán D. Harlow Collegiate
Professor of Public Health, and chair of the Department of
Biostatistics. She is also a professor of epidemiology,
and of global public health.
Honored: Tanya Garcia,
PhD, associate professor in the Department of
Biostatistics at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public
health has been honored with the 2024 Gertrude M. Cox
Award, which is awarded by Washington Statistic Society (WSS)
and RTI International. For over a decade, Garcia has led a
transdisciplinary research team of statisticians and
neuroscientists toward designing robust statistical
methods for neurodegenerative diseases.
Honored: The United States
Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS),
has named Adam Drewnowski, professor of
epidemiology at the University of Washington School of
Public Health the 2024 Wilbur Olin Atwater Memorial
Lecturer. He is a member of core faculty in the Food
Systems, Nutrition, and Health Program at the UW. He is
well known for his contributions to research in nutrition,
socioeconomic determinants of obesity and diet-related
chronic disease, relation between diet quality and diet
cost, and sustainable nutrition security as it relates to
climate change.
Appointed: Benjamin French,
PhD, professor of biostatistics and director of graduate
studies at Vanderbilt University, has been elected to the
National Council for Radiation Protection and Measurements
(NCRP) for a six-year term. Dr. French joined the NCRP's
program area committee on Basic Criteria, Epidemiology,
Radiobiology, and Risk in Fall 2023. He serves as an
expert advisor to the Department of Statistics at the
Radiation Effects Research Foundation and contact PI of
the R01-funded "Optimizing the implementation of
personalized risk-prediction models for venous
thromboembolism among hospitalized adults" study; he was
also PI of "Evaluation of time-dependent covariates in
radiation dose-response models in the Million Person
Study," supported by Oak Ridge Associated Universities and
is co-investigator of the NASA-sponsored "Evaluation of
dementia and cognitive tests among workers exposed to
low-LET radiation."
Awarded: "Great
Barrington Declaration" co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
and two others were awarded the Samizdat Prize by Real
Clear Politics. The organization stated that the three
were chosen for their bravery in resisting censorship.
Awarded: Claudia Zimmermann,
a member of the Department of Epidemiology at MedUni
Vienna's Center for Public Health, has been awarded this
year's Best Paper Award by the Austrian Society for
Epidemiology for her work on suicide mortality in
healthcare professions and other highly qualified
occupational groups.
Named: Mercedes Carnethon,
PhD, vice chair and Mary Harris Thompson Professor
of Preventive Medicine and chair of the Appointments,
Promotions, and Tenure Committee at Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, has been named
chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine, effective
September 1.
Honored:
Pandemic Center Senior Adviser Seth F. Berkley, MD,
will receive the 2024 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
Humanitarian Award for his work as an innovative
entrepreneur, a pioneer in global health, and a champion
of equitable access to vaccines. Berkley is adjunct
professor of the practice of epidemiology at the Brown
University School of Public Health.
Honored: Leonard E. Egede,
M.D., M.S. has been chosen to deliver the 2024 Robert
S. Gordon, Jr Lecture in Epidemiology. He is a
general internist, a tenured Professor of Medicine, and
the Inaugural Milwaukee Community Chair in Health Equity
Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is also
Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and
Director of the Center for Advancing Population Science.
Dr. Egede's research focuses on developing and testing
innovative interventions to reduce and/or eliminate health
disparities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic
status, and geographic location for chronic medical and
mental health conditions.
Named:
Justin B. Starren,
MD, PhD,
has been named director of the Center for Biomedical
Informatics and Biostatistics at the University of Arizona
Health Sciences. He is a professor, researcher and data
scientist with more than 30 years of experience in
biomedical informatics. He joins the university from
Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he
started in 2010 and was the director of the Center for
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science. He was also a
professor and chief of the Division of Health and
Biomedical Informatics, which he founded.
Named: Heather Bush,
Ph.D., has been named permanent dean of the University of
Kentucky’s College of Public Health. Bush has served as
the acting dean of the College of Public Health since June
15, 2022. Bush earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics
from Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and she earned both
her M.S. and Ph.D. in statistics from UK’s College of Arts
and Sciences. Prior to her academic appointment at UK in
2006, Bush worked as a senior biostatistician in industry,
developing protocols and designing observational studies.
Awarded:
Internationally recognized sexual health epidemiologist
Professor Eric Chow has received a 2024 Australian
Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal, one of 22 annual
honorific awards announced by the Academy today. The
Gottschalk Medal honors the contributions to science by
the late Professor A Gottschalk FAA and recognizes
outstanding research in the biomedical sciences by
researchers up to 10 years after completing their PhD.
Published: Erjia Cui,
PhD, is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Division
of Biostatistics and Health Data Science at the University
of Minnesota. In March 2024, Erjia co-published the book
Functional Data Analysis with R
Awarded: Dr. Jessica Cohen,
Associate Professor of Global Health at Harvard has been
selected as this year’s recipient for the Alice Hamilton
Award and will deliver the 2024 Alice Hamilton Award
Lecture. Dr. Cohen is an original thinker whose work is of
substantial global health impact. Dr. Cohen is a dedicated
teacher, mentor, leader, and scholar. Her work in the
field of maternal and child health has transformed the
design of malaria control policies around the world and
has been innovative in addressing gaps in care that often
led to worse and inequitable outcomes for pregnant people
and babies.
Named: The UNC-Chapel
Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health has appointed
Michael Hudgens, PhD, as chair of the Department of
Biostatistics, effective August 1. Hudgens has been on
faculty in the biostatistics department since 2004. He
became a full professor in 2016 and has served as
associate chair since 2021. He also has served as director
of the UNC Center for AIDS Research Biostatistics Core
since 2010.
Honored:
It has been announced that Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee
will receive the 2024 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award.Dr. Mukherjee a statistician working in key areas of
statistical genetics and genetic epidemiology, with an
expansive body of work that has helped to define the
methodological landscape in statistical genetics. She is
currently aProfessor of Biostatistics, Chair of the
Biostatistics Department, and Assistant Vice President for
Research at the University of Michigan, Dr. Mukherjee is
also the Siobán D. Harlow Collegiate Professor of Public
Health, and Professor of Epidemiology and Global Public
Health at the University of Michigan.
Appointed:
Brown University has
announced thatRebecca A. Hubbard, Ph.D.
will join the university as a professor of biostatistics
and data science. She is currently a professor of
biostatistics and vice chair for faculty professional
development in the Department of Biostatistics,
Epidemiology and Informatics at the Perelman School of
Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Appointed:
Brown University has
announced thatCorwin Zigler,
Ph.D.joins as a professor of
biostatistics. He is currently an associate professor of
statistics and data sciences at the University of Texas at
Austin.
In the News:
Since 2021, Marta
Shore, a biostatistics lecturer at the University of
Minnesota, has spent her free time painstakingly
recreating classic album artwork using everything from
quinoa to chia seeds to flax to barley to wild rice. It’s
called crop art, and at the 2023 Minnesota State Fair,
Shore displayed three plant-based recreations of 1983 pop
classics: Madonna’s self-titled debut album, Donna
Summer’s
She Works Hard for the
Money and Cyndi
Lauper’s
She’s So Unusual.
https://tinyurl.com/44h82824
Passed: Dennis Michael Perrotta,
Ph.D., CIC, passed away January 13, 2024, at his home in
Smithville, Texas. His education was extensive, earning
his PhD in epidemiology in 1982 and becoming Board
Certified in Infection Control (CIC) in 1989. Throughout
the 52 years of his professional career, he was notably
known as director and chief of the Bureau of Epidemiology
or the Texas Department of Health and professor of
epidemiology at the University of Texas.
https://tinyurl.com/jve256tx
Passed: Dr.
Joel Gordon Breman passed away April 6, 2024 in Chevy
Chase, Maryland, after a full and uniquely impactful life.
A deeply loved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, friend
and colleague to so many in the global health community,
Joel was known for his kindness, optimism, humor,
athleticism, passion for social service, mentoring the
next generation of global epidemiologists, and love for
the African continent. He was a dedicated leader in the
smallpox eradication program, a pioneer in the discovery
of the Ebola virus, and part of the global fight to
control and eliminate malaria, among many other scourges.
He earned his M.D. from the Keck School of Medicine at the
University of Southern California (USC). Joel’s medical
school advisor piqued his interest in global health, which
led to his participation in the Centers for Disease
Control’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program,
Infectious Disease training at Harvard Medical School, and
a Doctorate of Public Health from the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Honored: Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health associate
professor in the Department of Biostatistics, Abhirup
Datta, PhD, , was named a 2024 Emerging Leader in
Statistics by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical
Societies (COPSS). Datta was awarded the honor for his
contributions to geospatial statistics and machine
learning, for leading the development and application of
Bayesian methods for improving mortality estimates in low-
and middle-income countries, for prolific open-access
software development, and for being a role model in
advising and mentoring students as well as junior
colleagues.
Honored: Emily Hector,
assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at
NC State, has received a Faculty Early Career Development
Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The
award, also known as the NSF CAREER award, is one of the
highest awards the foundation gives to young faculty in
the sciences. The five-year award will support Hector’s
research project entitled “New data integration approaches
for efficient and robust meta-estimation, model fusion and
transfer learning.” The research aims to develop new
methods for combining information from multiple datasets
that have the potential to improve the robustness and
generalizability of scientific findings.
Honored: Yangjianchen Xu
and Justin DeMonte, biostatistics doctoral students
at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, were
among only 20 selected recipients for the Distinguished
Student Paper Award. The award is presented by the Eastern
North America Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric
Society.
Xu was selected for his paper titled
“Proportional Rates Models for Multivariate Panel Count
Data.” He helped to propose a model that relates risk
factors to recurrent events to analyze data to estimate
the effects of risk factors on recurrent events under the
constraints that the exact time a disease occurs is never
observed.
Honored: Yangjianchen Xu
and Justin DeMonte, biostatistics doctoral students
at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, were
among only 20 selected recipients for the Distinguished
Student Paper Award. The award is presented by the Eastern
North America Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric
Society.
DeMonte was selected for his paper titled
“Assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in observational
studies via nested trial emulation.” The paper illustrates
how nested trial emulation can be applied to estimate
vaccine effectiveness that may vary over time since
vaccination and calendar time.
Passed: The former
dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, Howard H.
Hiatt, a physician, scientist and academic who
reshaped the field of public health, steering it away from
the narrow study of infectious diseases toward big-picture
issues of fiscal and societal accountability in medicine,
died on March 2nd at his home in Cambridge, MA
at the age of 98. Harvard Public Health, a magazine
published by the Harvard School of Public Health, where
Dr. Hiatt was dean for 12 years,
wrote in 2013 that Dr. Hiatt “made public health the
conscience of medicine.”
https://tinyurl.com/2z9aj69u
https://tinyurl.com/bdha4xh2
Passed: The
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is
saddened by the passing of Professor Jürgen Wahrendorf,
who died on 15 March 2024 at age 75 years. He was a
pioneer of cancer epidemiology in Germany. He was
appointed chair and professor of the epidemiology unit at
the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg,
Germany, in 1986 and remained in that position until his
retirement in 2013. A mathematician by background, he was
attracted to cancer epidemiology during his first position
in the Unit of Biostatistics at DKFZ and while working at
IARC for 6 years in the Unit of Biostatistics and Field
Studies (from April 1980 to March 1986) before he returned
to DKFZ.
https://tinyurl.com/mu2szee4
https://tinyurl.com/2cystubv
Fired:
Infectious-disease epidemiologist and biostatistician
Martin Kulldorff is no longer a professor at Harvard
Medical School after refusing the COVID vaccine because he
had infection-acquired immunity. He is a member of the US
Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk
Management Advisory Committee and a former member of the
Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices at the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
In 2020, Kulldorff was a co-author of the
Great Barrington Declaration. The declaration was widely
rejected, and was criticized as being unethical and
infeasible by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the
director-general of the World Health Organization.
Appointed: Tamara Dubowitz,
ScD, MS, MSc, a senior policy researcher at the RAND
Corporation in Pittsburgh, has been appointed professor
and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the
University of Pittsburgh, effective April 15. A faculty
member at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, Dubowitz is
trained in social epidemiology. Her research interests
focus on the role of place and geography in shaping the
health and health behaviors of marginalized populations,
particularly in view of policies affecting housing, urban
planning and food security.
Appointed: Dr. Jaimie Gradus
has been named the new PhD Program Director for the Boston
University School of Public Health Department of
Epidemiology. She received her BA in psychology from Stony
Brook University, her MPH with a concentration in
epidemiology and biostatistics and DSc in epidemiology at
Boston University and her DMSc at Aarhus University. Dr.
Gradus's research interests are in the epidemiology of
trauma and trauma-related disorders, with a particular
focus on suicide outcomes.
Appointed: Dr. James “Jamie” Mancuso,
a retired Army physician with significant expertise in
tropical medicine, preventive medicine, and occupational
medicine, was selected to chair the Department of
Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics (PMB) in the F.
Edward Hebert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences (USU). This is
Mancuso’s second appointment as PMB department chair.
Appointed: Anarina
Murillo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at
Brown University was appointed Associate Editor for the
Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education. The
journal is an open access peer-reviewed journal published
by the American Statistical Association. The articles are
aimed at improving data science and statistics education
at all levels. In this AE role, Murillo will be
responsible for handling up to four papers a year. She
will also help out with the journal's social media
outreach.
Appointed: The
University of Florida Health Cancer Center is pleased to
announce that Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, has been elevated
to a new role as associate director for cancer
quantitative sciences. In this role, she will provide
high-level strategic leadership and administrative
direction for Cancer Center researchers. This support aims
to ensure high-quality data, rigorous and reproducible
analyses, and effective reporting, fostering collaborative
team-based scientific endeavors. The appointment is part
of the center’s continued development as a National Cancer
Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center.
Passed: Cameron Grace Estrich,
MPH, PhD, 40, epidemiologist and suspected fae, passed
away seven months after being diagnosed with metastatic
lung cancer. Dr. Estrich worked for the ADASRI, studying
policy implementation, dental professionals' occupational
health, and trends in dental treatment in the U.S.
civilian population. As a Public Health epidemiologist,
Cameron also researched vaccine hesitancy, mental health
issues, and sexual identity. Cameron's advocacy was
instrumental in improving access to the HPV vaccine
nationally.
http://tinyurl.com/yc2atpzh
Passed: Dr.
Adaora "Ada" Alise Adimora
passed away at age 67
after a years long battle with cancer.
As evidenced by her 37-page
curriculum vitae, Adimora's career was long and
far-reaching. In her
35-year career at UNC, Adimora was
awarded the position
of Sarah Graham Kenan
Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the
School of Medicine
and served as a professor of epidemiology in the
Gillings School of
Global Public Health. As an associate professor in
2003, she became the first African American woman
in UNC’s Department of Medicine to receive tenure.
http://tinyurl.com/yux5hjer
Passed: Dr.
Denise Simons-Morton, beloved wife, mother, and
grandmother and accomplished physician epidemiologist,
artist, and author, passed away on January 10, 2024.
Denise was a passionate researcher whose career at the NIH
advanced our understanding of cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, hypertension, and chronic disease. In 2019,
Denise published her Memoir Public Health / Private
Disease about the intersection of her experience battling
Parkinson's Disease and her commitment to advancing public
health.
http://tinyurl.com/3ht932wu
Passed: Harold W. (Bill) Kohl III,
Professor of Epidemiology at the UTHealth Houston School
of Public Health in Austin and Research Professor of
Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of
Texas at Austin, died on January 7, 2024. He was regarded
as a luminary in public health, epidemiology, and physical
activity research. An esteemed educator, mentor, and
researcher, Kohl dedicated over four decades to advancing
the scientific understanding of physical fitness and its
impact on health and disease.
http://tinyurl.com/3s6kyyz5
Passed: Pranab K. Sen,
PhD, professor emeritus at the UNC Gillings School of
Global Public Health, passed away in Chapel Hill on
December 31, 2023, at age 86. He earned a doctorate in
statistics and an honorary doctorate in science from the
University of Calcutta. He taught at the University of
Calcutta and the University of California at Berkeley,
before joining the faculty of the School of Public Health
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In
2002, he won the Gottfried E. Noether Senior Scholar Award
of the American Statistical Association (ASA). He was the
2010 recipient of the ASA’s Samuel Wilks Memorial
Award for outstanding contributions to statistical
research, especially in nonparametric statistics and
biostatistics, and for exceptional service in mentoring
doctoral students.
http://tinyurl.com/22d56hmb
Passed: Stanley S. Schor,
100, formerly of Philadelphia, retired professor of
statistics at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple
University’s medical school, former executive director of
clinical biostatistics and research data systems at Merck
& Co., pioneer in the application of biostatistics,
prolific clinical researcher, author, and veteran, died
Monday, Dec. 26, at his home in Highland Beach, Fla. His
reports elevated the role of statisticians in approving
research, refined project policies, and updated everyday
medical information for women, children, veterans, and the
general public. Among other activities, he revamped
questions on medical tests and research reviews, and
introduced new methods to ensure safety, accurate product
information, and the efficient distribution of effective
drugs.
He taught statistics and research methodology at Penn from
1950 to 1964, was professor of biometrics and onetime
department chair at Temple from 1966 to 1975, and worked
at Merck from 1975 to 1991.
http://tinyurl.com/ya2fdt8w
Apppointed: North
Dakota Information Technology (NDIT) is pleased to
announce Kimberly Weis as its new chief data
officer. As chief data officer, Weis will have a pivotal
role in shaping how NDIT leverages data to drive
innovation, enhance efficiency, and achieve better
outcomes for stakeholders.Weis, who holds a Master of
Public Health degree in Epidemiology, began her
professional career in genetic epidemiology at the
University of Minnesota. In 2004, she relocated back to
her home state of North Dakota and worked at North Dakota
Department of Health for five years.
Appointed: Boston
College School of Social Work Professor Summer
Sherburne Hawkins, a social epidemiologist whose
research interests include health disparities among women
and children, has been appointed as the inaugural
associate director of BC’s Global Public Health and the
Common Good interdisciplinary undergraduate program.
University administrators expressed praise for Hawkins,
who joined BCSSW in 2012, and is assistant director of
BC’s Institute of Early Childhood Policy; she has
published in prominent peer-reviewed public health
journals on such topics as tobacco and cannabis use,
maternal morbidity and mortality, infant feeding
practices, and preventive health services.
Appointed:
Manya Magnus,
PhD, MPH, has been named Chair of the Department of
Epidemiology at the Milken Institute School of Public
Health. Magnus,
who started January 2, has served as a professor of
epidemiology, interim Chair of the Department of
Epidemiology, the principal investigator (multiple) for
the NIH/DAIDS-funded DC Clinical Trials Unit (DC CTU), and
co-Director of the NIH-funded DC Center for AIDS Research.
For more than 30 years, Magnus has conducted applied
epidemiologic research that focuses on innovative
biomedical and structural interventions to prevent HIV
transmission.
Appointed: Ruth
Etzel, MD, PhD, an eminent pediatrician and
environmental epidemiologist, has been named
Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Health. Etzel was
appointed to serve a five year term, from January 2024
until January 2029. Etzel is internationally recognized
for her work on reducing children's exposures to indoor
air pollutants such as tobacco smoke and molds.
Apppointed:
Judd Walson,
MD, MPH, has joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health as chair of the Department of International
Health and as professor in the Department’s Global Disease
Epidemiology and Control program. He assumed the role on
November 14, 2023. Walson, whose work focuses on low- and
middle-income settings, comes from the University of
Washington, where he held several positions since 2007,
most recently professor of Global Health, Medicine
(Infectious Disease), Pediatrics, and Epidemiology.
Appointed: Julie Kapp,
an associate professor of public health in the University
of Missouri’s College of Health Sciences, has been
appointed to the Publications Board of the American Public
Health Association (APHA). Kapp was selected to serve a
three-year term on the board, which will run from November
2023 until November 2026. Kapp is nationally recognized by
the American College of Epidemiology as a fellow for her
significant and sustained contributions to the field. Her
work has been highlighted in The New York Times,
Psychology Today, USA Today and Yahoo! Health.
Appointed: Douglas Landsittel
has been named the new chair of the Department of
Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Health
Professions. Landsittel will join UB in February from the
Indiana University-Bloomington School of Public Health,
where he has served as the James A. Caplin, M.D. Chair in
Evidence-based Public Health and chair of the Department
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics since 2021. Prior to
joining Indiana University-Bloomington, Landsittel held
numerous academic appointments and leadership positions at
the University of Pittsburgh.
Appointed:
The Global Virus
Network (GVN) today announced the appointment of
Sten Vermund, MD, PhD,
as President of the GVN. Dr. Vermund is the Anna M.R.
Lauder Professor of Public Health, former Dean of the Yale
School of Public Health (2017-2022) and serves as a
Professor in Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Vermund’s research has mainly focused on health care
access, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and
rights, and prevention of HIV transmission among general
and key populations, including mother-to-child.
Appointed: James
Luby, M.D., an infectious disease specialist,
epidemiologist, and 55-year member of the UT Southwestern
faculty, has been appointed Professor Emeritus of Internal
Medicine. He joined the faculty of UT Southwestern in 1967
and has served the University in multiple ways during his
tenure, including as Chief of the Division of Infectious
Diseases from 1975 to 1997. For many years, Dr. Luby
headed UT Southwestern’s viral diagnostics lab.
Passed:
Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist who
helped drive the country's strict zero-COVID measures in
China that suspended access to cities and confined
millions to their homes, died on Friday. He was 60. Wu's
health had been poor. He disappeared out of the public eye
for months last year while battling cancer.
Wu, who earned his master’s and doctorate
from the University of California, Los Angeles, had spent
much of his early career working on HIV/Aids prevention in
China. Wu was instrumental in developing China’s flagship
policy in the HIV epidemic among intravenous drug users,
according to his biography on the UCLA website.
Passed: Judith Schwartzbaum,
an epidemiologist whose groundbreaking research focused on
the relationship between the immune system and the
development of glioma (a form of brain cancer). Born in
Alameda, California, in 1945, and raised in Los Angeles,
she earned multiple degrees in history before shifting to
epidemiology, and in 1991 began a long, distinguished
career at the Ohio State University's College of Public
Health, from which she retired in 2022.
https://tinyurl.com/5dfvw68x
Passed: Public
Health Servant Dr. Douglas Huber, of Newton, died
peacefully at home, on November 7, 2023, following a short
illness. Douglas pursued undergraduate studies at the
University of Arizona, earned his MD at the University of
Colorado School of Medicine and completed his internship
and residency at the University of Oklahoma's Health
Sciences Center. Douglas discovered his love for "the
anonymous gift of public health" in the Epidemic
Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control in Atlanta, and earned a Master of Science in
Medical Demography at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine. Subsequently, Douglas enjoyed five
decades of rewarding work in epidemiology and
international public health, working in more than 40
countries to improve health at the population level.
https://tinyurl.com/yeyrfw94
Passed: Gary Marsh,
PhD, of McMurray, PA passed away on October25, 2023. Gary
was Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics and Epidemiology,
and the Founding Director of the Center for Occupational
Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of
Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. He graduated
with honors with a BS in Mathematics from the University
of Pittsburgh, and a MS (Hyg) and PhD in Biostatistics
from the Graduate School of Public Health at the young age
of 25. He joined the faculty of the Department of
Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health in
1978 until his retirement in 2020. Gary also served as
Interim Chairman for the Department of Biostatistics in
the Graduate School of Public Health. Gary became a Senior
Principal Health Scientist at Stantec ChemRisk in 2015.
https://tinyurl.com/yc5kry87
Named:
Global expert services and
consulting firm Berkeley Research Group (BRG) has
announced that epidemiology expert Wendy Cheng has
joined the firm's Boston office as a managing director in
its health care practice. The leading epidemiologist
will extend health analytics and outcomes
research, strengthening scope of firm's practice.
Prior to her career in healthcare consulting, Dr. Cheng
served as a research scientist at Columbia University and
worked as a biostatistician in the Clinical Trials Network
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Named: Tara M. Friebel,
a cancer epidemiologist with expertise in global oncology
and implementation science, is joining Rutgers Global
Health Institute as a principal faculty member.Friebel
will become an assistant research professor of global
health at the institute on October 16. Her research
focuses on the prevention, early detection, and treatment
of breast and cervical cancer in low-resource settings.
She also will be affiliated with Rutgers Cancer Institute
of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in
the Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes section of the
Division of Medical Oncology.
Honored:The National Academy of Medicine
(NAM) announced this morning that M. Daniele Fallin,
PhD, James W. Curran Dean of Public Health, has been
elected as one of its newest members. Fallin is one of
three individuals selected from Emory University for NAM
membership this year. Igho Ofotokun, MD, professor of
medicine, was also elected and holds a joint appointment
at Rollins. Fallin’s
globally-recognized research focuses on applying genetic
epidemiology methods to studies of neuropsychiatric and to
developing applications and methods for genetic and
epigenetic epidemiology, as applied to mental health and
development.
Named: Andrea
Baccarelli, an eminent environmental health sciences
scholar, will become the next dean of the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health, Harvard President Claudine
Gay announced on Wednesday. Baccarelli is currently the
Leon Hess Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and
Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of
Public Health, where he also serves as chair of the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences. He previously
served as an associate professor at the Chan School of
Public Health. He will become dean on Jan. 1, succeeding
Michelle Williams, who served as dean through the
2022-2023 academic year.
Named: The
University of Virginia School of Medicine has named
Matthew J. Gurka, PhD, a national leader in child
health research, to chair its Department of Public Health
Sciences. Gurka comes to UVA from the University of
Florida, where he serves as vice chair of health outcomes
and translational research and director of the Pediatric
Research Hub in the Department of Pediatrics. Before that,
he served as the founding chair of the Department of
Biostatistics at West Virginia University’s School of
Public Health. Gurka began his academic career in UVA’s
Department of Public Health Sciences, where he rose to
become an associate professor in the Div of Biostatistics
and Epidemiology.
Honored: The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill awarded the
2023 Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award to
David J. Weber, MD, the Charles Addison and Elizabeth
Ann Sanders Distinguished Professor of medicine and
pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine, professor of
epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public
Health, associate chief medical officer at UNC Health
Care, and medical director in the Department of Infection
Prevention at UNC Medical Center. It is fitting to
recognize Weber’s service as an infectious disease
physician and epidemiologist following the worst pandemic
since the 1918 influenza pandemic, which caused the death
of 42-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill President Edward Kidder
Graham.
Honored: Sarita Shah, MD,
epidemiology professor at the Rollins School of Public
Health at Emory University, has been awarded the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Midcareer Investigator Award in
Patient-Oriented Research (K24). Her research and public
health work have focused on drug-resistant tuberculosis
(TB) and TB/HIV co-infection throughout sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia. Shah’s K24 award, “Mentoring
Multidisciplinary Patient-Oriented Research in TB, HIV,
and Global Health,” will leverage an ongoing NIH
R01-funded study investigating drug-resistant TB
transmission in South Africa, including the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on social contact patterns that are a
key factor in disease spread.
Passed:
Dr. David Shaffer, a psychiatrist
who spent decades studying children and teenagers who died
by suicide, constructing a framework for screening and
laying the groundwork for modern prevention efforts, died
in Mastic Beach, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 87.
In the 1970s, when Dr. Shaffer was a young doctor, most
people saw the suicide of a child or adolescent as a
random and unpredictable act. Trained as an
epidemiologist, he undertook an investigation known as a
“psychological autopsy,” gathering detailed information
from adult caregivers of 31 children who had died by
suicide. The research yielded surprises. In more than a
third of the cases, the suicide had occurred in the midst
of what he called a “disciplinary crisis,” as the child
awaited consequences. Many of the children were described,
not as depressed, but as aggressive or impulsive.
“He liked the detective work,” Dr. Charlie
Shaffer said. “That’s why he loved being an
epidemiologist. He loved detective stories.”
https://tinyurl.com/ymesp2wb
Named:
Austin Porter,
Dr.PH., MPH, is an assistant professor in the University
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Fay W. Boozman
College of Public Health Department of Health Policy and
Management. Porter,
who is also the Arkansas Department of Health’s deputy
chief science officer, was recently named Arkansas’ deputy
state epidemiologist. In this role, Porter — who has been
with the Arkansas Department of Health since 2010 — will
support and advocate for the state’s epidemiologists.
Named: Rebecca Bartles,
DrPH, MPH, CIC, FAPIC, will join the Association for
Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)
as Executive Director of APIC’s Center for Infection
Prevention and Control Research, Practice & Innovation (CIPCRPI).
Dr. Bartles begins on October 2. Dr. Bartles comes to APIC
from Providence Health in Washington State, the
second-largest non-profit health system in the United
States, where she served as Executive Director of
Infectious Disease Management and Prevention for the past
eight years. She also teaches masters-level students at
the University of Providence infection prevention degree
program that she founded in 2016.
Honored: Nature
Magazine has named Kofi Amegah, PhD to it’s list of
People Who Are Changing the Environment One Community
at a Time. He is a professor of Environmental and
Nutritional Epidemiology at the University of Cape Coast
in Ghana. He shared his work in 2015 at a WHO meeting in
Switzerland and discovered a huge gap in data on air
pollution in Ghana. Since that time he has founded
Breathe Accra which is installing pollution meters in
Ghana’s capitol to identify pollution hotspots.
Honored:
Charles Rotimi, Ph.D., was awarded
the Academy Medal for Distinguished Contributions in
Biomedical Science by the New York Academy of Medicine.
This honor, established in 1929, recognizes investigators
with sustained and impactful accomplishments in biomedical
research and an interest in translating these findings to
advance human health. Dr. Rotimi is the scientific
director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI),
a role in which he directs the institute’s Intramural
Research Program. He is also the director of the Trans-NIH
Center for Genomics and Global Health (CRGGH) and an NIH
Distinguished Investigator.
Honored:
Victor Soupene (21MS, 21CER), PhD candidate in the
Department of Epidemiology, recently received a 2023
Rising Star Award from the
Safe States Alliance. This award recognizes the
professional growth and leadership of students and newer
professionals working in the field of injury and violence
prevention (IVP) less than five years.
Passed: Dr.
Philip T. Cole, a cancer epidemiologist, died on
September 6, 2023 in Shoal Creek, Alabama. He attended
Michigan State University (B.A., 1960), the University of
Vermont (M.D., 1965), and Harvard University (M.P.H.,
1967). He earned a Dr.P.H. in 1970, also from Harvard.
He began his professional career in Epidemiology at
Harvard in 1969 where between 1969 and 1979 he authored or
co-authored more than 70 research papers relating to the
epidemiology of cancer in human beings. In 1979 Phil
relocated to Alabama where he assumed a position as Senior
Scientist at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He served as
Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at UAB from
1981 to 1994, and during that time he authored or
co-authored more than 130 research papers on causality in
Epidemiology, health policy and law, innovative approaches
to smoking cessation, occupational and chemical
carcinogenesis and the health effects of electromagnetic
fields.
https://bit.ly/3LzePHy
Passed: Sherri Oliver Stuver,
ScD, of Quincy, MA, died at the age of 61 from a long
illness with Multiple Sclerosis, on September 13th, 2023
at home with her loving family by her side. She was a
Clinical Professor of Epidemiology and Director of
Epidemiology Doctoral Program at Boston University. She
was also the Senior Research Scientist in the Department
of Quality and Patient Safety at Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute. She was a graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe
College, AB, and Harvard University School of Public
Health, ScD. She was born and raised on Nantucket Island
with her three sisters and large extended family.
https://legcy.co/48phcXb
Named: West
Virginia University epidemiologist Brian Hendricks
has joined the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy as a senior policy analyst. He was appointed to
the position in fall 2022 through the Intergovernmental
Personnel Act mobility program—which provides for the
temporary assignment of personnel between governments and
eligible organizations—with plans of continuing in the
role over the next year. With extensive expertise in
spatial epidemiology and geographical analyses, Hendricks
is supporting the use of spatial analyses and other
methodological approaches to policy and priorities of the
office.
Named: Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has appointed
Jaime Madrigano, ScD, MPH, as a Bloomberg Associate
Professor of American Health in the area of Environmental
Challenges in the Department of Environmental Health and
Engineering. She is an environmental epidemiologist
committed to research that advances holistic, equitable
solutions to protect the public from the growing threat of
climate change. Her research examines how environmental
pollution and extreme weather—alone and in combination
with neighborhood and socioeconomic factors—impact
population health.
Named: Meagan Helmick,
the epidemiologist who oversaw COVID-19 responsibilities
in Southwest Virginia, has been named the health director
for the Mount Rogers Health District (MRHD). Meagan
Helmick joined the Virginia Department of Health in 2020.
In addition to serving as the deputy epidemiologist for
the entire Southwest Virginia region, Helmick acted as a
case investigator and supervisor during the pandemic.
Helmick has also been an assistant professor at Radford
University-Carilion, where she taught public health and
health sciences courses at both the undergraduate and
graduate level.
Appointed: Dr.
Puthiery Va will be the next Director of the Maine
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), starting
August 28, 2023. Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew appointed Dr.
Va following a national search, based on Dr. Va’s
extensive range of experience in primary clinical care,
epidemiology, and public health emergency response, having
most recently led the successful COVID-19 response in the
Navajo Nation. Dr. Va will be returning to Maine having
received her medical degree from the University of New
England.
Appointed:
Brown University has announced that Dr.
Francesca
Beaudoin will
take on the role of Interim Academic Dean at the School of
Public Health. In addition to her continued role as the
Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Francesca will
assume responsibility for helping to guide the school's
academic mission. She will serve as the school's chief
academic officer, a thought partner to me, and a key
member of the leadership team.
Appointed: Brown
University has announced that
Brandon Marshall,
PhD, has agreed to be Vice Chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Epidemiologic
Research. His work focuses on substance use epidemiology,
harm reduction research, and the social, environmental,
and structural determinants of health of drug-using
populations. He received a PhD in epidemiology from the
School of Population and Public Health at the University
of British Columbia.
Honored:
Associate Professor Masaaki Kitajima
of Hokkaido University, Shionogi & Co., and AdvanSentinel
Ltd. were bestowed with the
Minister of State for
Health and Medical Strategy Award
(健康・医療戦略担当大臣賞)
of the
6th Japan Medical
Research and Development Grand Prize
(第6回日本医療研究開発大賞).
The award was granted in recognition of their initiative
“Implementation of Wastewater-based Epidemiology for Novel
Coronavirus.” The award ceremony, held on August 23, 2023,
was attended by Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan.
Honored:
Professor Katherine Kedzierska, Dr Oanh
Nguyen and Dr Louise Rowntree – dubbed the Corona Queens –
were recognised for their outstanding contributions to
COVID-19 research. Responding to the global pandemic, they
promptly established innovative and multi-disciplinary
immune research programs to unravel the intricate immune
responses to SARS-CoV-2, and they were the first in the
world to report on immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection in one
of Australia’s first COVID-19 patients in March 2020.
Left to Right:
Katherine Kedzierska, Louise Roundtree, Qanh Nguyen
Honored: Dr. John Kaneene,
East Lansing, Michigan won this award in recognition of
his outstanding leadership and career contributions in
animal health and human health, in the spirit of One
Health. A 1972 veterinary graduate of the University of
Khartoum in Sudan, Africa, Dr. Kaneene is a professor of
epidemiology and public health and director of the Center
for Comparative Epidemiology at Michigan State University
College of Veterinary Medicine.
Honored: Dr. Jonna Mazet
(California-Davis '92) won this award in recognition of
her outstanding leadership and career contributions in
animal health and human health, in the spirit of One
Health. Dr. Mazet is vice provost for grand challenges and
a professor of epidemiology and disease ecology at the
University of California-Davis School of Veterinary
Medicine. She founded the One Health Institute at the
veterinary school, where she served as executive director.
Passed: Emeritus
Professor Mary-Louise McLaws OA, an epidemiologist
and world-renowned public health researcher, has passed
away. A world-renowned public health advocate, Professor
McLaws (nee Viney) understood that a health crisis needs
experts as well as leaders. She became both for millions
of Australians. Professor McLaws had a passion for public
health early in her career, inspired by her mentor and
immunologist the late Professor David Cooper AC. McLaws
gained her PhD in Epidemiology in 1992, eventually
becoming Professor of Epidemiology, Hospital Infection and
Infectious Diseases Control at the School of Population
Health at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Passed: The HIV
Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) has announced the passing of
Dr. Stephaun Elite Wallace, Director of External
Relations for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s (Fred
Hutch) HVTN, on August 5, 2023. Dr. Wallace was a research
epidemiologist and public health and social justice
leader. In addition to serving as HVTN’s Director of
External Relations, he had faculty appointments at Fred
Hutch, the University of Washington, and Yale as a staff
scientist, clinical assistant professor, and affiliate
professor, respectively. Throughout all aspects of his
work, he focused on increasing positive health outcomes
for members of racial/ethnic and gender/sexual minority
groups in the United States and internationally.
Honored: Amanda Crowson,
MPH, RN, CPU, CIC was honored by APIC with the esteemed
New InvestigatorAware at the 2023 Association for
Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)
Conference and Exhibition. Crowson started her
professional journey at AdventHealth Tampa in Florida,
where she completed her field experience while a Master of
Public Health student at the University of South Florida.
She has dedicated herself to the field of infection
prevention and even returned to school to become a
registered nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Honored: Henning Tiemeier,
MD, PhD has been named one of the two recipients of
the2023 Alzheimer Award by the Journal of Alzheimer’s
Disease. Dr. Tiemeier received his Doctorate in Medicine
and his sociology degree from the University of Bonn,
Germany, and his PhD in Epidemiology from the Erasmus
University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is Professor
of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Erasmus University
Medical Center Rotterdam and in 2018, was appointed
Professor of Social and Behavioral Science and Sumner and
Esther Feldberg Chair in Maternal and Child Health at the
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
Honored: Roseanne Freak-Poli,
PhD has been named one of the two recipients of the2023
Alzheimer Award by the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
She is a life-course epidemiologist. Her work is strongly
driven by social justice, being the distribution of
wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.
She is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Clinical
Sciences at Monash Health, Melbourne, Australia. She has
been awarded an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship and
a National Heart Foundation of Australia Postdoctoral
Fellowship.
Appointed: The
Philadelphia Department of Public Health announces the
appointment of Dr. Landrus Burress as their new
Director of the Division of Disease Control. Dr. Burress
is an Air Force veteran and served as Chief of Public
Health Operations for the Preventive Aerospace Medicine
Division, US Air Force Central Command, 332nd
Expeditionary Medical Group in Southwest Asia. In that
role, he directed public health operations which included
disease reporting and surveillance, communicable diseases,
population health, occupational health, and public health
emergency preparedness to maintain health for three global
Southwest Asian locations.
Appointed:
Professor Marian Knight, who is Professor of Maternal
and Child Population Health and Director of the National
Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford Population Health,
has been appointed National Institute for Health and Care
Research (NIHR) Scientific Director for Research
Infrastructure. She will lead on the strategic development
of the NIHR’s infrastructure, working in partnership with
infrastructure leaders. As part of her role on the NIHR
Board, Professor Knight will support the Department of
Health and Social Care Chief Scientific Advisor and NIHR
Chief Executive, and the Director of Science Research and
Evidence to deliver against the NIHR’s mission to improve
the health and wealth of the national through research.
Honored: Dr.
Joseph Pater has been recognized for a lifetime of
work in cancer research with his appointment as an Officer
of the Order of Canada. The honor acknowledges the impact
of his dedication to clinical research which has improved
the lives of Canadians with cancer. He is a Professor
Emeritus at Queen’s, was the head of the Department of
Community Health and Epidemiology, where he taught
clinical trials courses and supervised graduate students
and fellows. For over 40 years, he has advanced clinical
trial research in Canada. “Dr. Pater is one of the most
important individuals in Canadian cancer research, having
built a network that has defined new standards of
practice, improved patient outcomes, and is recognized
globally as a centre for excellence," says Dr. Janet
Dancey, Director of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG). He
is sometimes called the “father” of cancer clinical trials
research in Canada.
Named: The
University of Chicago has announced that
Dan Nicolae
has been named the Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten, Jr.
Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of
Statistics and Medicine and the College. Nicolae joined
the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1999. He has
served as chair of the Department of Statistics from
2016-2022, section chief for the Section of Genetic
Medicine from 2015-2016, and currently as faculty
co-director of the Data Science Institute. Nicolae’s
research seeks to understand the role of genetic, genomic
and environmental factors, and their interactions, in the
development of common diseases. A statistical geneticist
and a mathematical statistician, he specializes in
developing methodological advances for large data problems
in biology and medicine.
(From
left) Drs. Lauren Christiansen-Lindquist, Sarita Shah, Jodie
Guest, Neel Gandhi and Shakira Suglia
from the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University's
Rollins School of Public Health
Jodie Guest,
PhD,
professor and senior vice chair of the Department of
Epidemiology
was awarded the 2023 Kenneth Rothman Career
Accomplishment Award, which honors an outstanding scholar who
has made extraordinary contributions to the field of
epidemiology or whose work has had a profound impact on
epidemiology.
Lauren Christiansen-Lindquist,PhD,
assistant professor and director of graduate studies for MPH
and MSPH programs in the Department of Epidemiology
was awarded the 2023 Tom Koepsell & Noel Weiss
Excellence in Education Award, which is awarded to an
individual who has made substantial contributions to the field
of epidemiology through mentoring, training and/or teaching.
Neel Gandhi,
MD,
andSarita Shah, MD,
professors in the Department of Epidemiology at
Rollins with secondary appointments in Emory’s School of
Medicine
.
Gandhi and Shah were awarded the 2023 Roger
Detels Distinguished Researcher in Infectious Disease Award,
which recognizes extraordinary contributions to the research
field of infectious disease epidemiology.
Shakira Suglia,
ScD,
professor and vice chair in the Department of
Epidemiologywas awarded the 2023 Carol J.
Rowland Hogue Award for Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement,
which is given to a mid-career scientist who has made an
exceptional contribution to the practice of epidemiology.
Appointed: President
Biden has named Dr. Mandy Cohen, former state
health secretary in North Carolina, to serve as the next
leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cohen, 44, is an internal medicine physician who has
served in top positions in state and federal government
and in the private sector. From 2017-2021, she served as
health secretary in North Carolina, where she worked on
expanding access to health care for low-income residents
and became the face of the state's COVID-19 response
during the public health emergency.
Named: Dr. Kathryn Taylor
has been named the Mississippi Interim State
Epidemiologist, effective July 1, 2023.Currently serving
as Deputy State Epidemiologist since 2019, Dr. Taylor has
worked at MSDH for several years, previously District V
Health Officer and Medical Consultant for the Office of
Communicable Diseases. Dr. Taylor has been vital in
providing direction for surveillance and surveillance
systems to the agency, has led and been involved in
numerous outbreak and reportable diseases investigations
and in the responses to other diseases of public health
significance.
Appointed: Dr. Julie Kornfeld
will become president of Kenyon College, effective Oct. 1,
2023. Kornfeld is currently vice provost for academic
programs at Columbia University. She has also served as
vice dean for education and associate professor of
epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public
Health; and assistant dean and director of education at
University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.
Kornfeld holds a bachelor’s in journalism
from Boston University, a Master of Public Health from
University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in epidemiology also from
UMiami.
Appointed: Saint
Louis University has appointed Leslie McClure, Ph.D.,
as the next permanent dean of SLU’s College for Public
Health and Social Justice (CPHSJ), effective Nov. 15.
McClure is the associate dean for faculty affairs at the
Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. She
also has served as the chair of the school's Department of
Epidemiology and Biostatistics since 2015 and previously
served as the interim director of the Drexel Biostatistics
Service Center.
Honored:
Professor David Hunter has been awarded a Companion of
the
Order of Australia in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours
list. is a world-renowned epidemiologist specialising in
disease prevention and early detection now based at Oxford
University in the UK. Joining the faculty at the Harvard’s
T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1989, he went on to
establish the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention in 1997
and later its Program in Molecular and Genetic
Epidemiology. Occupying deanships at the T.H. Chan school
from 2019 to 2016, he was made an Emeritus Professor in
2016.
In the spotlight: Erica
Rapheal, an epidemiologist from St. Paul, competed on
“Jeopardy!” in an episode that aired at 4:30 p.m. Friday
June 16th.
“Finally
allowed to announce the coolest thing that’s ever happened
to me,” Rapheal wrote
in an Instagram post that showed her and host Mayim
Bialik on the game show’s set.
Passed: Susan Elizabeth Goodwin Gerberich
(Mayo Professor of Public Health Emerita, University of
Minnesota), died on June 4, 2023. she launched the first
major comprehensive study of football injuries in
Minnesota high schools in 1978, that included
documentation of high rates of concussions and spinal
trauma symptoms, among other injuries. Other major studies
of sports-related injuries, including hockey, were
subsequently developed and conducted by her with a
research team. She joined the School of Public Health
faculty full-time, 1983-2021, where she developed a major
teaching and research program in injury epidemiology and
prevention that included the first federally funded
training program in occupational health and safety.
https://bit.ly/3Da2epL
Dr. John Richard Hebel,
87, passed away peacefully on June 1, 2023, in York, PA,
after a long battle with Guillain-Barre disease. Rich
began his career in the Department of Epidemiology and
Public Health at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine as Assistant Professor in 1966. He was promoted
to Associate Professor in 1971 and to Professor in 1984.
He participated in research concerning prenatal care for
low- income women, blood pressure variability, smoking
cessation during pregnancy, hospital mortality,
hypertension screening, lead exposure, hip fracture
recovery, dementia in nursing homes, alcohol abuse
intervention, urinary tract infection, and health effects
of exposure of pfiesteria. Rich was also the author or
co-author of over 200 journal articles.
https://bit.ly/440E6RT
Awarded:
Kathryn H. Jacobsen, PhD, MPH,
received the 2023 Velji Global
Health Award for Teaching Excellence from the Consortium
of Universities for Global Health (CUGH).
Dr. Jacobsen is a
professor of epidemiology and global health and
holder of the William E. Cooper Distinguished University
Chair at the University of Richmond (Virginia, USA). She
has
authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles as
well as two widely used textbooks,
Introduction to Global Health (now in its 4th
edition) and
Introduction to Health Research Methods(currently
in its 3rd edition), both published by Jones &
Bartlett Learning.
Appointed:
Dr.
Francesca Beaudoin,
associate professor of epidemiology and of emergency
medicine at Brown University, has been appointed chair of
the Department of Epidemiology effective July 1, 2023. A
clinical epidemiologist and practicing physician, Dr.
Beaudoin began her academic career as assistant professor
in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Warren
Alpert Medical School in 2010. Conducting research at the
intersection of pain, opioid use, and opioid use
disorders, her work is widely recognized as impacting the
landscape of pain management and improving post-overdose
care in acute care settings.
Appointed:
Nicole Deziel,
associate professor of epidemiology (environmental health
sciences), has been named a co-director of the
Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric, and Environmental
Epidemiology (CPPEE), starting July 1. She will share
leadership duties with the center’s current director,
Andrew DeWan, associate professor of epidemiology
(chronic diseases).DeWan has been the lone director of
CPPEE since Brian Leaderer, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor
Emeritus of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences),
retired in June 2020. DeWan recently approached Deziel,
who is on sabbatical this school year, about co-directing.
Awarded: One
of the recipients 2023 Harvard Alumni medals, Paula A.
Johnson is an internationally recognized
physician-scientist and educator, whohas committed
her career to advancing the well-being of women. As the
president of Wellesley College, and the first African
American in that role, Johnson has advanced inclusive
excellence and STEM education for women, among other
accomplishments. Johnson was also the Grayce A. Young
Family Professor of Medicine in Women’s Health at Harvard
Medical School — a professorship named in honor of her
mother — and professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health.
Honored: Michael
Hudgens, PhD, is
the winner of the 2023 Larsh Award from the UNC Gillings
School of Global Public Health. Hudgens is a professor and
associate chair of the Department of Biostatistics and
serves as the director of the Biostatistics Core of the
UNC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He has experience in
collaborative research and statistical methodology
development related to studies of infectious diseases.
Honored: Lindsey
Smith Taillie, PhD,
is the winner of the 2023 McGavran Award from the UNC
Gillings School of Global Public Health. Taillie is a
nutrition epidemiologist who received her doctoral degree
in nutrition from the Gillings School in 2014. She is a
current associate professor in the nutrition department
and the department’s associate chair for academics. She
also co-leads the UNC Global Food Research Program.
Honored: Erin Haynes, Dr.P.H.,
Kurt W. Deuschle Professor of Preventive Medicine and
Environmental Health and chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the
University of Kentucky College of Public Health, is
one of 16 University Research Professors for 2023-24. The
University Research Professorships honor faculty members
who have demonstrated excellence that addresses
scientific, social, cultural and economic challenges in
our region and around the world.
Appointed: Texas
Women’s University professor, Loan Van Auker, has
been appointed to the team at
LiquiTech, a leading provider of sustainable water
treatment and management solutions for commercial and
institutional customers. VanAuker
brings more than 15 years of experience in disease
outbreak surveillance, investigations, and prevention,
most recently as an Infection Prevention Practitioner at
Baylor Scott & White Health Systems.
Appointed: LinKinVax,
a clinical-stage biotechnology company,has
announced the appointment of Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D.,
to its scientific advisory board. Giuliano, a
professor of epidemiology, is the founding director of the
Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer (CIIRC)
at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute,
Tampa, Florida.Early in her career, she worked on
the links between human papillomavirus (HPV) infections
and cervical cancer in women, before moving on to other
HPV-related male and female cancers. Prof. Giuliano,
currently leads a CIIRC research team at the Moffitt
Cancer Center to accelerate the development and use of
vaccines and compounds to prevent and treat cancer.
Passed: Kenrad E. Nelson,
a professor of epidemiology and internationally recognized
AIDS expert who spent nearly four decades on the Johns
Hopkins faculty, died April 21 at the age of 89. In an
email announcing his death and paying tribute to his
memory Tuesday, Bloomberg School of Public Health Dean
Ellen MacKenzie honored Nelson's "stellar record as a
researcher, teacher, and mentor." Nelson joined the Johns
Hopkins faculty in 1986 as a full professor in the
Department of Epidemiology with joint appointments in
International Health and the School of Medicine's
Department of Medicine. He was an early investigator of
HIV in blood donors and recipients and, with David Vlahov,
co-investigator on a grant that would revolutionize AIDS
research, The natural history of HIV infections in
injection drug users in Baltimore: The ALIVE study
https://bit.ly/43cWdUy
Passed: Malaria
kills more than half a million people every year, mostly
children under the age of five in Africa. Saving the lives
of those children was the lifelong mission of Dominic
Kwiatkowski, who has died suddenly aged 69. A
professor at Oxford University, Dominic recognised that
bringing the power of genomics to bear on malaria would
need data from multiple studies in many countries. He saw
that the only way to achieve that was in partnership with
researchers based in the countries where malaria was
endemic. In 2005 Dominic won funding from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to set up
the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN).
https://bit.ly/3MICmpe
Appointed:
St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital has named Greg Armstrong,
M.D., MSCE, the new chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Cancer Control, the department that has
established the institution as a world leader in the study
of childhood cancer survivorship. A physician-scientist,
Armstrong is the principal investigator of the Childhood
Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), and is a co-program leader
for the Cancer Control and Survivorship Program, one of
the five major programs within the St.
Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Appointed: Dr. Megan Todd has
been appointed by the Philadelphia Department of Public
Health as their new Chief Epidemiologist. Dr. Todd is a
demographer and social epidemiologist who most recently
served as the Director of the Data Lab for the Health
Department’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury
Prevention. Dr. Todd’s work focuses on population health,
health policy, and translating scientific findings for
policy and general audiences. She holds a PhD in
Demography and Public Affairs from Princeton University
and an AB in economics from Harvard University.
Honored: Patricia A. Ganz, M.D.
has been awarded the 2023 AACR-American Cancer Society
Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and
Prevention. The award recognizes outstanding research
accomplishments in cancer epidemiology, biomarkers, and
prevention. Dr. Ganz is a Distinguished Professor of
Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, a
Distinguished Professor of Health Policy & Management at
the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and associate
director for population science at the UCLA Jonsson
Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Awarded: Third-year
epidemiology PhD student Ahmed Soliman has been
awarded an American Heart Association (AHA) Pre-Doctoral
Fellowship. The prestigious award is designed to advance
the research and clinical training of pre-doctoral or
clinical health professional students who plan to conduct
research or work in careers aimed at improving
cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health.
Soliman’s research examines the impact of proton pump
inhibitors (PPIs) on the cardiovascular health of
postmenopausal women.
Honored: Joseph Cavanaugh, PhD,
professor and head of the Department of Biostatistics in
the College of Public Health, was honored with a 2023
Regents Award by the University of Iowa. Cavanaugh is a
methodological and collaborative researcher who leverages
his expertise in statistics and biostatistics to
investigate a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary
topics. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed
manuscripts and has made particularly important
contributions in the areas of statistical model selection,
time series analysis, infectious diseases epidemiology,
and injury prevention. He played a significant role in the
state of Iowa’s COVID-19 response, leading a team that
partnered with the Iowa Department of Public Health to
analyze data and develop predictive models to help the
state respond to the pandemic.
Passed: John
Newton MacCormack passed on March 14, 2023. Newton
received a B.A. in Chemistry from Duke University. Upon
completion of his undergraduate degree, he pursued his
medical degree from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. After serving two years in the U.S. Navy as a
Lieutenant, he obtained his Masters in Public Health from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Newton
served the citizens of North Carolina with the State Board
of Public Health. He served as the head of Communicable
Disease as well as the State Epidemiologist. He retired in
2001 but returned after 9/11 to work for several more
years.
https://bit.ly/40MOGJP
Passed: John Walker Poundstone, MD
passed away on April 1, 2023 in Lexington,
KY. John received his BA in Liberal Arts in 1962 from St.
John's College in Annapolis, MD, and his medical degree in
1966 from the newly established University of Kentucky
School of Medicine, followed by Board Certification in
General Preventive Medicine and an MPH from the Harvard
School of Public Health. John joined the US Navy in 1980
and served as Head of the Venereal Disease and
Tuberculosis Control Division, Bureau of Medicine and
Surgery, Washington DC; Chief of the Division of
Epidemiology and Biometrics at the Navy Medical Research
Unit, Great Lakes, IL; and Officer in Charge of the Navy
Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit in Naples,
Italy.
https://bit.ly/40I0uwY
Honored: Wayne
D. Rosamond, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the UNC
Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been named
the 2023 recipient of the American Heart Association’s
(AHA) EPI Mentoring Award. The award highlights the
importance of superior mentoring in cardiovascular
epidemiologic research by honoring a person who has
provided exceptional individual and institutional
mentoring and advocacy for cardiovascular epidemiology
researchers.
Appointed: Karina L. Walters, Ph.D., M.S.W.,
enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has
been appointed director of the NIH Tribal Health Research
Office (THRO). Dr. Walters’ wealth of experience and deep
commitment to engaging tribal leadership in health
research efforts makes her ideally suited for the
position. Her commitment to community-based participatory
research is evident in her demonstrated ability to sustain
collaborations with diverse Native communities and conduct
successful randomized clinical trials in tribal
communities. She succeeds David R. Wilson, Ph.D., who is
on assignment to the White House Council on Native
American Affairs.
Honored: Kristen Bibbins-Domingo, M.D.
has been named to the STATUS List for the second year in a
row. As the editor in chief of JAMA, she became the first
person of color to lead the prestigious medical journal
and its network of publications. She is also the former
chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Her
contributions to advancing cardiac science through
population studies earned Bibbins-Domingo, who is trained
in epidemiology and is a member of the National Academy of
Medicine, the American Heart Association’s 2022 Population
Research Prize.
Honored: Albert Ascherio, M.D.,
has been named to the STATUS List for 2023. He began his
career as a young doctor treating tropical diseases in
South American rainforests and parts of Africa. Over the
next quarter-century, he made his way to what is now his
wheelhouse: studying the links between viruses and
neurodegenerative diseases. Perhaps none of his projects
have generated as much attention as his 2022 paper, which
offered strong evidence, through a 20-year study of more
than 10 million people, that infection with the
Epstein-Barr virus, most commonly known for causing
mononucleosis, increased the likelihood of developing MS
by more than 32-fold.
Honored:
Ashish Jha, MD, MPH the White House coronavirus
coordinator and Brown School of Public Health dean (on
leave), has been honored with a place on the 2023 STATUS
List. In March 2022, He signed on to help the White
House manage its pandemic response at a time when
fast-spreading variants continued to pose a major public
health threat even as many Americans moved away from
restrictions. In Washington, Jha has focused on promoting
Covid-19 countermeasures such as bivalent booster shots,
free at-home tests, and free masks for use in crowded
public settings.
Honored: Harvard
epidemiology professor, John Marc LipsitchDPhil,
was named to the STATUS List for 2023. When Lipsitch
observed the government’s lackluster pandemic response
back in spring 2020, the Harvard epidemiologist helped
fill the void by providing timely, accurate information to
the public via social media and news outlets. Since then,
Lipsitch has become one of the most trusted voices in the
U.S. on Covid-19. Last year, he took the helm as inaugural
director of science at the CDC’s new Center for
Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which has been likened
to the National Weather Service, but for infectious
diseases.
Honored: UCLA
epidemiologist Anne Rimoin PhD, MPH, was named to
the STATUS List for 2023. Rimoin has spent two
decades studying emerging infections in Central Africa,
and has long advocated for surveillance systems that allow
for their rapid identification and control. Last year,
when mpox began to sweep the globe, Rimoin was an early,
authoritative voice calling on public health officials to
take the threat seriously. Although the threat of mpox has
since waned, she urges continued vigilance against
infections with the potential for global spread, including
mpox.
Elected:
Epidemiologist and biostatistician Maria Cervania, MPH
was elected to serve in the North Carolina legislature.
She is one of the first two Asian-American women to serve
in that body and the first Filipino elected to serve in
any elected government office in North Carolina. Her new
position follows 20 years of work in public health.
Named: Jennie
H. Kwon, DO, an assistant professor of medicine in
the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named
head of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiologists of
America Research Committee. Kwon’s clinical and
translational research is dedicated to infection
prevention and combating antimicrobial resistance.
Passed: Dr.
Mark A. Belsey died peacefully at home in Brooklyn
Heights on March 2, surrounded by his family. In 1965 he
was the Director of Emergency, Immunization and
Epidemiologic Surveillance following Hurricane Betsy in
New Orleans. He taught epidemiology and pediatrics at
Tulane and saw patients at Charity Hospital while pursuing
research at the International Center for Medical Research
and Training in Cali, Colombia. He joined the World Health
Organization in 1972, and moved his young family to
Geneva, Switzerland. In 1982 he was named Chief Medical
Officer and Head of Maternal and Child Health and Family
Planning at the WHO. His 2005 book for the United Nations,
"AIDS and the Family" focused on the repercussions of
HIV/AIDS on families in Sub-Saharan Africa.
http://bit.ly/3G1j7Vp
Passed:
Corleen Jane Thompson PhD,
78, of Wilmington, NC died on February 26, 2023. She
received her PhD in Epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill
after working in medical research for many years. Corleen
pursued the field of Epidemiology in Georgia and resided
in Albany, GA.
Appointed: Inside
Tracker, the leading personal health analysis and
data-driven wellness guide that helps people increase
their healthspan and live healthier longer, announced
today that Dr. Kate Wolin
has joined the company as a member of its Scientific
Advisory Board. A leader in the field of behavioral
epidemiology with a successful executive track record, Dr.
Wolin brings an acclaimed expertise in the integration of
evidence-based behavior change and personalization
strategies into digital health products and platforms.
Honored: Dr. Calvin Booker
of Okotoks, Alberta is the recipient of the 2023
Veterinarian of the Year Award presented by the Western
Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners (WCABP) and
Boehringer Ingelheim Canada. He is recognized for his
significant impact on feedlot veterinary medicine,
groundbreaking research as an epidemiologist and several
innovations that have transformed the cattle industry.
Honored: Tamarra James-Todd,
the Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of
Environmental Reproductive Epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H.
Chan School of Public Health, received the 2022 Alice
Hamilton Award at a ceremony on November 17 for her
leadership in the area of environmental exposure and
women’s health. She documents the impacts of harmful
chemical exposures and related environmental health
disparities—and her work does not end there. She also
brings the science into the community to shed light on
preventable risks and show people how to improve their
health.
Honored: In June,
Syracuse University’s Falk College Associate Dean of
Research and Professor of Public Health Katherine
McDonald will receive the 2023 Research Award from the
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental
Disabilities (AAIDD).For nearly two decades, McDonald has
led community-engaged research with people with
developmental disabilities and advocated for the
responsible inclusion of adults with intellectual
disability in research. When she started, there weren’t
many other researchers who were involved in that kind of
work.
Passed: PanCAN
and the pancreatic cancer community mourn the passing
of Gloria Petersen, PhD. Dr. Petersen was Consultant
and Professor of Epidemiology at Mayo Clinic, where she
held the Purvis and Roberta Tabor Professorship. Dr.
Petersen was a longstanding member of PanCAN’s Scientific
and Medical Advisory Board (SMAB) and also received a
PanCAN Early Detection Targeted Research Grant in 2017.
Dr. Petersen’s primary research interest was in
understanding hereditary pancreatic cancer and the genetic
changes that cause the disease.
http://bit.ly/3ZkxlHS
Passed: Bruce
Arthur Goodrow passed away on February 13, 2023. He
served as a faculty member at State University of New
York, University of Tennessee, Western Kentucky
University, Minnesota State University, and spent the last
18 years of his career as a professor in the College of
Public Health at East Tennessee State University. Upon
retirement he was honored as Professor Emeritus. Dr.
Goodrow earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from
West Texas A&M and the University of Texas, a doctorate
from the University of Tennessee, and completed
postdoctoral studies in epidemiology at the University of
Minnesota.
http://bit.ly/3SFXfnC
Passed:
Epidemiologist and expert
in infectious diseases and diagnostics Luis Cuevas.
died of pancreatic cancer on Jan 2, 2023 in Wirral, UK. As
an epidemiologist and expert in tropical medicine, he was
driven by the question of how to make a practical
difference in access to diagnostics and treatment for
people in low-resource settings. Although Cuevas’
research stretched across multiple diseases, speeding up
the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis was a passion.
http://bit.ly/3ZpgqUF
Passed:
Kenneth Gerald Johnson, M.D., passed away on
January 28th, 2023. Dr. Johnson's distinguished career
bridged the worlds of academic medicine and public health.
He was a clinical professor of cardiology at Yale;
director of medicine and epidemiology at the Atomic Bomb
Casualty Commission in Japan; associate professor of
medicine at Cornell-New York Medical College, where he was
director of epidemiological research; and a full professor
of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School where he
established the Department of Community Medicine, serving
as its first chair.
http://bit.ly/3SGxCmv
Appointed: Saad
B. Omer, M.B.B.S, Ph.D., who currently directs the
Yale Institute for Global Health, has been appointed the
inaugural Dean of School of Public Health at
UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Omer has conducted
studies in the United States, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda,
Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, and
Australia. He has published more than 430 peer-reviewed
papers that have been cumulatively cited more than 150,000
times. Dr Omer’s published workis consistently cited for
policy recommendations and has informed legislative policy
and clinical practice in many countries.
Appointed: Ubydul Haque,
a geospatial epidemiologist who designs data- and
technology-driven solutions for confronting global public
health problems, has joined Rutgers Global Health
Institute. Haque, who is an assistant professor of global
health at the institute, has a joint appointment as an
assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of
Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public
Health. Haque investigates factors related to physical
space and time that can affect human health. His research
has focused on infectious diseases, climate change,
conflict and war and natural disasters.
Appointed: Nirav D Shah,
an Indian-origin epidemiologist, has been appointed
Principal Deputy Director at the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, making him the second-in-command
at the national public health agency. Shah is currently
the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. He will assume the new role, second in
leadership under US CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, in
March. His appointment as Principal Deputy Director comes
as part of a planned, broader overhaul of that agency
announced by the US CDC Director in August of last year.
Passed: John Colley,
who has died aged 92, was a pioneering epidemiologist and
professor of public health medicine at Bristol University.
He was among that early postwar cohort who expanded
epidemiology to give it more dynamic clinical relevance.
Their new measures of physical and mental function for use
in population studies enabled research to show how illness
and disease risk develop over long periods of life, and
how ageing occurs. At the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine (1964-76) John showed how childhood
exposure to atmospheric pollution was a risk for adult
onset of chronic respiratory disease. http://bit.ly/3JrsBvI
Passed: Dr
Muireann Brennan, the Dublin-born doctor who had a
long career in public health medicine in the developing
world, has died suddenly at her home in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr Brennan worked for the American Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) throughout the world,
supporting emergency responses in Pakistan, Syria,
Afghanistan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of
Congo. She also worked on a secondment from the CDC as an
epidemiologist with Unicef in Switzerland, where she
helped to co-ordinate staff in complex humanitarian
emergencies.
http://bit.ly/3YcRr6B
Passed: John
David “Dave” Erickson of Gainesville, Georgia, passed
away peacefully on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, after a
brief illness. From 1972-1974 he was an Assistant
Professor in the Dept of Epidemiology and International
Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine at
the Univ of Washington. Dave was soon recruited by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta as
an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Birth
Defects Branch. This marked the beginning of a remarkable
28-year career with the CDC. During Dave’s career at the
CDC, he primarily studied risk factors for birth defects
and how to prevent them.
http://bit.ly/3JqYqo9
Passed: Dr. Dawn Kristen Smith,
a prolific and pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher,
epidemiologist and public health professional at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, died of
unknown causes at her Atlanta home on Monday, October 31,
2022. Smith was a a Medical Officer and Biomedical
Prevention Activity Lead in the HIV Research Branch,
within the Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for
HIV, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections and
Tuberculosis, at CDC. She was also the lead of the Prevent
Pillar Workgroup at CDC, one of the four pillars in the
U.S. "Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US" initiative.
http://bit.ly/3DmTSLK
Passed:
Harold “Hal” Margolis died on November 25, 2022, at home
in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Margolis began his 34-year medical
career at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), first
serving in Alaska. He relocated to Phoenix, Arizona,
serving in the CDC Hepatitis Branch. He orchestrated the
complex move of that Branch to the CDC headquarters in
Atlanta, Georgia and served as the Director of the
Hepatitis Branch for over 20 years. Under his leadership,
Hepatitis A and B infections and deaths were greatly
reduced in the United States and globally due to
systematic implementation of vaccine use.
http://bit.ly/3jjOgLC
The
Students Who Rocked Public Health In 2022
"Every year the Journal of Public Health Management and
Practice recognizes students who are making important
contributions to the field of public health by soliciting
nominations from members of the public health community. As in
previous years, nominees were evaluated on timeliness and
urgency of the public health issue addressed, level of success
achieved, overall impact of the project, and level of
inclusiveness and diversity." Here are the winners.
For the details on their accomplishments please
click here:
http://bit.ly/3JrhSBf
Honored:JoAnn E. Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH, Chief of the
Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, Professor of Medicine and the Michael and Lee
Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical
School, and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at
the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, received
the Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award in October
2022 for her pioneering contributions to women’s health,
especially in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Stepping Down: Michelle Williams
has announced that she is stepping down as
Dean of the Harvard Chan School at the end of the 2022-23
academic year. Williams, a renowned epidemiologist who has
published widely on maternal and child health, will remain
on the faculty. After a year-long sabbatical, she plans to
resume the research, teaching, and mentoring that have
long been at the center of her academic career.
Honored: Jennie H.
Kwon, DO, an assistant professor of medicine in the
Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2022
Mid-Career Scholarship Award from the Society for
Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). The award
honors clinicians and scientists who have been in practice
for less than 15 years while also demonstrating
“dedication and excellence in infection control and
hospital epidemiology.”
Honored: Stephanie Shiau,
PhD, MPH, an assistant professor in the Rutgers School of
Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics and
Epidemiology, received the 2022 Abraham Lilienfeld Award
from the American Public Health Association Epidemiology
Section. The award, which recognizes excellence in the
teaching of epidemiology, was presented to Shiau at the
organization’s annual meeting in Boston.
Honored: Greg Rhee, PhD of the
UCONN School of Medicine has been named a fellow of the
American College of Epidemiology (ACE). Rhee is an
interdisciplinary pharmaco-epidemiologist and health
services researcher in the fields of aging and mental
health. His current research interests are interrelated
and consist of mood disorders, dementias, and suicidality
as well as cannabis and opioids. Methodologically, his
expertise is grounded in population-based comparative
effectiveness and cost-effectiveness research using large
databases and also systematic reviews and meta-analyses of
existing studies.
Honored: Andrea Z. LaCroix PhDhas
been named one of the 1,000 best researchers in the
world. She is Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and
director of the Women’s Health Center of Excellence in the
Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity
Science. Her work identifies modifiable factors associated
with living longer and with intact mobility and cognition
in older women and men. She also studies biomarkers of
healthy longevity, such as epigenetic age acceleration.
She leads several long-term, large prospective studies and
both preventive and treatment-focused randomized
controlled trials.
Awarded: Lisa Chasan-Taber
MPH, ScD, chair of the University of Massachusetts
Amherst Department of Epidemiology, has been awarded a
five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) to continue research that aims to
understand how physical and mental health during pregnancy
can help predict cardiovascular and mental health
disorders in middle age. Chasan-Taber will lead the
project, collaborating with UMass Amherst neuroscientists
Rebecca Spencer and Jerrold Meyer, professor and professor
emeritus, respectively, of psychological and brain
sciences.
Passed:
Lewis Kuller MD Dr. Kuller, a top epidemiologist
and a leading figure in preventive cardiology, could trace
his interest in the field to when he was a medical
resident in Brooklyn in the early 1960s, responding by
ambulance to emergency calls when people had died suddenly
of heart attacks at home or in the street. Appointed
chairman of the epidemiology department at the University
of Pittsburgh in 1972, he was also a professor there and a
frequent investigator in clinical trials, as well the
author of many journal articles.
http://bit.ly/3OIPmLU
Passed: Lee W. Riley MD At the
time of his death, Riley was professor of epidemiology and
infectious diseases and chair of the Infectious Diseases
and Vaccinology Division at the UC Berkeley School of
Public Health, as well as director of the
Global Health Equity Scholars Program. Riley’s
expansive research interests ranged from “slum” health to
tuberculosis and from food borne pathogens—including
seminal work on E. coli— to parasitic diseases. However,
his true legacy is his generous mentorship of thousands of
aspiring scientists and public health experts in the
United States and around the globe. Their ongoing work
serves as a testament to Riley’s ability to inspire and
influence his students and collaborators.
http://bit.ly/3AROXBc
Passed:
Tom Meade, who has died aged 86, pioneered the
field of cardiovascular epidemiology. His research,
spanning five decades, gave medical science a vastly
improved understanding of the biology of blood and the
circulatory system, opening the door for targeted new
heart disease treatments. In 1970, he became director of
the newly created MRC Epidemiology and Medical Care Unit
at Northwick Park in Harrow, north-west London. In 2001 he
became an emeritus professor of epidemiology at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
http://bit.ly/3XGHvCD
Profiled:
Growing up on free school meals at one of
the lowest performing state schools in the country,
Dr.
Raghib Ali
went on to become a leading epidemiologist and OBE awardee.
He’s determined to improve the life outcomes of children
from poor backgrounds so that they too can reach their
full potential.
https://bit.ly/3DB6b7I
Awarded:
The WKU College of Health and Human Services (CHHS)
recently hosted a 20th anniversary celebration and
recognized alumni for their achievements with the first
annual CHHS Alumni Achievement Award. A 2003 graduate of
CHHS with a Master of Public Health (MPH), one of the
recipients, Mr. Jason Cummins, is the Director of
Tennessee Department of Health TB Elimination Program, and
was the first recipient of the CHHS Outstanding Graduate
Student award.
Awarded: Dr. Katelyn Jetelina,
author of Your Local Epidemiologist and editor & publisher
of the EpiMonitor, with the National Academies top award
for: Research Scientist: Early Career for her
communications work. In awarding the prize the Academy
stated: “Jetelina offers very concise and clearly written
explanations from the unique (and invaluable) perspective
of an early career epidemiologist who deals with the
nuances relating to COVID infection, vaccination, and
public health issues in an extremely effective way. The
breadth of her influence and the importance of her work to
many members of the public over the last two years…”
Honored:Wafaie Fawzi, Vikram Patel & John
Quackenbush Three faculty members from Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health—Wafaie
Fawzi,
Vikram Patel, and
John Quackenbush—have been elected to the National
Academy of Medicine (NAM). Fawzi is the Richard
Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences and professor
of nutrition, epidemiology, and global health. Patel is
professor in the Department of Global Health and
Population at Harvard Chan School as well as Pershing
Square Professor of Global Health in the Department of
Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical
School. Quackenbush is the Henry Pickering Walcott
Professor of Computational Biology and Informatics and
chair of the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard Chan
School, as well as professor in the Channing Division of
Network Medicine, and professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute.
https://bit.ly/3U23gdN
Passed: Dr. Genevieve E. ‘Gene’ Matanoski
an epidemiologist and the longest-serving
faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health who was internationally known for her work
in toxic exposure research, died of a heart attack Oct. 2
at Sinai Hospital. The Reisterstown resident was 92. Dr.
Matanoski began her career at Hopkins in 1958 as a
research associate in epidemiology and in 1976 became the
ninth woman at Bloomberg to be appointed full professor
with tenure. In 1978, she was the founding director of the
occupational and environmental epidemiology training
program, which she headed until 2010.
https://bit.ly/3FpdQHL
Passed:
Dr. Paula Braitstein passed away in Eldoret, Kenya.
She was a Professor of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana
School of Public Health and cross-appointed to the
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Faculty of
Medicine as well as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana
University and Visiting Professor at Moi University. She
started her career as an HIV treatment educator and
activist in the community-based HIV/AIDs movement. She was
a CIHR Applied Public Health Chair and renowned expert in
epidemiology, population health and planetary health.
https://bit.ly/3TZItHD
Passed: Paul Wilkinson director
of the British National Institute for Health and Care
Research health protection research unit in environmental
change and health, repeatedly urged his colleagues to
“think big.” There was no time to waste, and he was hugely
energetic. During his career, he led or was the
co-investigator on over 70 research projects, covering
subjects ranging from energy efficient buildings and air
and noise pollution to the impact of flooding on health,
and speed restrictions on road injuries.
https://bit.ly/3SDToFV
Honored Posthumously : The Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) has recognized the
late epidemiologist Ms. Carla Gabriela Romero Pérez,
from Bolivia, with the PAHO Award for Health Services
Management and Leadership. Ms. Romero Pérez worked at
Bolivia’s Ministry of Health and oversaw vector control
programs. Conferring this year’s honour, the President of
the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference, Michael Pearson
recognized the tireless work of Ms. Romero Pérez to
strengthen efforts to combat arboviruses.
https://bit.ly/3TH27Zk
Appointed: Dr. Michael Cappello, MD,
a professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine
and a board-certified infectious diseases clinician, has
been appointed chair of the Epidemiology of Microbial
Diseases (EMD) Department, effective September 1, 2022. In
addition to his position as a professor in the Department
of Pediatrics, Cappello holds a secondary appointment in
EMD and serves as an associate director of the Yale MD-PhD
Program. He also serves as attending physician in the
Pediatric Infectious Diseases section at the Yale-New
Haven network of affiliated hospitals in Connecticut and
Rhode Island.
Named: The
National Academy of Medicine (NAM) today announced that
Columbia Mailman School’s Dustin Duncan , ScD,
associate professor of epidemiology, has been named a 2022
Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar. Duncan is
a social and spatial epidemiologist, studying how
neighborhood characteristics and mobility across
geographic contexts influence population health and health
disparities. His research focuses on Black gay, bisexual
and other sexual minority men and transgender women of
color.
Awarded: In
recognition of her outstanding accomplishments in teaching
and scholarly activities, Christa Lilly, associate
professor in biostatistics, has been selected to receive
the Academic Scholar Award, and will be honored during the
upcoming Chancellor’s Outstanding Achievement Awards
ceremony. The Chancellor’s Awards celebrate faculty
members “who have been recognized by their peers for their
outstanding accomplishments at WVU Health Sciences.”
Awarded: Professor Raina MacIntyre,
Head of the Biosecurity Program at the
Kirby Institute at UNSW (Univ. of New South Wales), has received the Eureka Award for
her leadership in science and innovation. The Australian
Museum Eureka Prizes are the country’s most comprehensive
national science awards, honouring excellence in the
fields of research and innovation, leadership, science
engagement and school science. As a public health
physician, epidemiologist and researcher, Professor
MacIntyre has had a significant leadership role in the
international response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Passed: Leslie
Bernstein, PhD, a trailblazing cancer epidemiologist, died
July 28. She was 82. Bernstein, who joined City of Hope in
2007, was a distinguished pioneer in breast cancer
research spanning 40 years. In her decades-long career,
her work as a biostatistician and cancer epidemiologist
transformed the way researchers, clinicians, and others
perceive the ability to modify cancer risk
https://bit.ly/3dFvOu9
Passed: Richard B. Warnecke,
a longtime member of the University of Illinois Cancer
Center and a national leader in cancer control research,
died Friday, Aug. 19. He was 84. Warnecke, professor
emeritus of epidemiology, public administration and
sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago, sustained
a continuous and high level of funding from the National
Cancer Institute. He was particularly skillful in
conducting large-scale, multiple-component,
community-based investigations, consisting of two program
projects — Community Interventions for Cancer Prevention
(1986-1992) and Strategies for Smoking Cessation Among Low
Educated Women (1993-1998).
https://bit.ly/3fmn3pc
No Photo
Available
Passed:
William S. Burnett, 92 of Albany, N.Y. and
Williston, Vt., passed away peacefully July 19, 2022,
after a short illness. Dr. Burnett spent his career
working for the State of New York Department of Health,
retiring as the assistant director, Cancer Control Bureau.
He later shared that one of the many reasons he loved his
work was the opportunity to travel the world to learn,
explore and to increase visibility into patterns of
disease to identify public epidemics by sharing research
at international conferences.
https://legcy.co/3xWuAS5
Passed:
The International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) is saddened by the passing of Professor
Dame Valerie Beral at the age of 76. She served on
the IARC Scientific Council and was a contributor to the
IARC Monographs
programme. She was a renowned cancer epidemiologist who
spent almost 20 years working in the Department of
Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. In 1988, she became the Director of the Cancer
Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, focusing her work on the role
of reproductive, hormonal, and infectious agents in cancer
risk.
https://bit.ly/3C93LMW
Hired: West
Virginia University has named Tyler Quinn to the
faculty. Dr. Quinn graduated with his Ph.D. in
exercise physiology with an emphasis in epidemiology and
biostatistics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020.
Since graduation, he has worked as an Associate Service
Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NIOSH,
Pittsburgh). Dr. Quinn’s current research focuses on the
relationship between occupational physical activity
exposure and cardiovascular health.
Published: Mya Brady
(Univ of Pittsburgh SPH ’21G) is marking her first
publication as first author (and second to date) with a
study in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare
Epidemiology, “Transmission
Visualization of Healthcare Infection Clusters: A Scoping
Review,” Brady and colleagues analyzed 30 publications
to ascertain the most common elements used to map
infectious disease outbreaks and spread in institutional
settings. Of the more than three dozen data visualizations
studied, the team found none they felt included all the
factors most useful to determine likely transmission
pathways.
Awarded: Brooke Staley,
a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the UNC Gillings
School of Global Public Health and former co-chair of the
Minority Student Caucus, was selected as one of 38
awardees in the 2022
Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship competition.
Selected from more than 600 applicants, she is the first
Gillings student to receive this distinction, which is
rarely awarded to public health trainees.
Named:
President Biden named Dr. Demetre Daskalakis as the
White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy
Coordinator. FEMA’s Robert Fenton and Daskalakis will lead
the Administration’s strategy and operations to combat the
current monkeypox outbreak, including equitably increasing
the availability of tests, vaccinations and treatments. Dr
Daskalakis is currently Director of the CDC Division of
HIV Prevention. Widely known as a national expert on
health issues affecting the LGBGQIA+ communities, his
clinical practice has focused on providing care for the
underserved LGBTQIA+ communities. He previously oversaw
management of infectious diseases for the New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Awarded: David Waltner-Toews,
Toews is a veterinarian and epidemiologist, researcher and
teacher and the founding president of Veterinarians
Without Borders. Waltner-Towes, a retired Guelph
University professor, has been made an Officer of the
Order of Canada. He was recognized for his “leadership and
expertise in ecosystem approaches to health, and for
supporting development worldwide,” the Governor General of
Canada said in a recent statement.
Resigned: Chief
Epidemiologist of Iceland Þórólfur Guðnason has
resigned. Þórólfur is leaving the job both for personal
and professional reasons. According to the Directorate of
Health, the main reason for Þórólfur’s resignation is that
the current wave of COVID-19 infection has mostly subsided
and a new chapter is beginning in the Chief
Epidemiologist’s role. “This new chapter includes, among
other things, a review of the response to the COVID
pandemic with the aim of improving response to future
pandemics,” the notice from the Directorate states. The
Chief Epidemiologist will also be shifting focus back to
the routine projects that were largely put on hold due to
the pandemic.
Awarded:
The Government of Japan has awarded the Fourth Hideyo
Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research to Columbia
faculty members Salim S. Abdool Karim, CAPRISA
Professor for Global Health in the Department of
Epidemiology and director, Center for the AIDS Programme
of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and to Quarraisha
Abdool Karim, professor of epidemiology and associate
scientific director of CAPRISA.
Passed: Neal Nathanson who served
as Chair of Microbiology for 15 years, Associate Dean for
Research, Vice Provost for Research, and Director of the
Global Health programs at the University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine. He spent 22 years at Johns
Hopkins University, in the School of Public Health, where
he was a Professor of Epidemiology, head of the Division
of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Epidemiology
and founding Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of
Epidemiology. Dr. Nathanson also spent two years as an
Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for
Disease Control, where he headed the Polio Surveillance
Unit.
Passed: Peter Boyle known for
his work in tobacco control, bringing orthodoxy and truth
to interpretation of scientific data, his forecast of a
cancer epidemic in the developing world, his advocacy of
cancer prevention and his mentorship of young scientists.
He was a former member of the faculty at of the Harvard
School of Public Health in the Departments of
Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Later he joined the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the
United Nations cancer agency.
Passed: Peter Schantz who served
as Chief of the Laboratory of Parasitology for the Pan
American Zoonoses Center/World Health Organization in
Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1970-1974. He was a
consultant on hydatid disease control to public health
authorities in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia, and
Brazil. In 1974 Peter joined the Epidemic Intelligence
Service (EIS) as a Commissioned Officer in the Division of
Parasitic Diseases. Peter served the division as
epidemiologist until his retirement in 2008. Afterwards he
served as an Adjunct Professor, Department of
Epidemiology, Emory University School of Public Health.
Passed: Eugene "Gene" J. Gangarosa
the former head of CDC’s Epidemic
Intelligence Servicewhospent his career serving
institutions for the public good, including: the U.S. Army
Medical Corps at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research,
the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—where he
received the William C. Watson Jr. Medal of Excellence,
CDC's highest honor—American University of Beirut and
Emory University’s School of Medicine. He played a key
role in the evolution of Emory’s graduate program, now
known as the Rollins School of Public Health.
Passed: James “Jimmy” Beecham
who was a member of the Epidemic
Intelligence Service in ’76-’78. He was involved in the
1976 Legionnaire’s Disease investigation and was a subject
of the book “Inside the Outbreaks”. He practiced medicine
in both Maryland & Pennsylvania. In 1982 joined the US
Navy as an infectious disease doctor and served in 15
different countries with a focus on Southeast Asia. He
initiated the Navy’s collaboration with Dr. Jonas Salk in
the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and was awarded
the Navy’s Legion of Merit for his work.
ARCHIVES
Named:
Penn State has named Jason
Rasgon,
professor of entomology and disease epidemiology, as the
Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Disease
Epidemiology and Biotechnology. A member of the Huck team
since he arrived at Penn State in 2011, he was previously
an associate professor at Johns Hopkins.
Stepping Down:
New Mexico State Epidemiologist, Dr. Christine Ross,
has left her position effective July 10, 2022. In the
announcement of her departure it was stated that Dr. Ross
was looking forward to spending the summer with her family
after countless weekends of work during the pandemic.
Hired:
Michael Stevens, M.D.
has been announced as the inaugural epidemiologist for the
West Virginia University Health System. Most recently he
held a number of concurrent positions including the
associate chairmanship of the Division of Infectious
Disease at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of
Medicine.
Appointed:
Infectious disease epidemiologist, Dr. Utpala Bandy,
as the interim director of the Rhode Island Department of
Health. In announcing her appointment the governor
praised her three decades at the center of public health
in Rhode Island.
Apppointed:
CIDRAP
(Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) has
announced the appointment of Eve Lackritz, M.D. as
their new deputy director. Dr. Lackritz was previously
with CDC for 23 years in addition to several years with
the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth
located at Seattle Children's.
Appointed:
L. Joseph Su, Ph.D., M.P.H.,
a nutritional epidemiologist who researches links between
diet and contaminants in food to cancer and health has
been appointed an Associate Dean at UT Southwestern. Dr.
Su is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the
Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health, which
will enroll its first class of students in late 2023. In
this new role, Dr. Su will work with faculty to establish
a solid foundation of innovative curriculum backed by
evidence-based research and to attract a diverse student
body.
Passed:Joyce C. Lashof, M.D. was the first woman to head
a state health department and the first woman to serve as
dean of the School of Public Health at the University of
California, Berkeley. Dr. Lashof was a leader in the
battle for health equality for decades and is well known
for her work in fighting discrimination against AIDS
patients.
https://nyti.ms/3S12vS5
Passed:Carol Clarke
Hogue of
Chapel Hill, NC, an epidemiologist nationally
known for her research on the health and social support
needs of the elderly. Her work for the U.S. House of
Representatives Select Committee on Aging contributed to
the 1981 White House Conference on Aging.
Awarded:Lauren Anne
Wise
won the SER 2022 Noel Weiss and Tom Koepsell Excellence in
Education Award. Dr. Wise is a Professor of Epidemiology
at Boston University School of Public Health and her
research involves the study of benign
gynecologic conditions, delayed conception, and adverse
pregnancy outcomes.
Awarded:Stephen Cole
won the SER 2022 Marshall Joffe Epidemiologic Method
Research Award. Dr. Cole is a Professor of Epidemiology at
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and focuses on
study
designs and analyses that accurately estimate parameters
of central interest to health scientists.
Awarded:Maya
Mathur
won the SER 2022 Brian MacMahon Early Career
Epidemiologist Award. Dr. Mathur is an Assistant Professor
of Pediatrics and Assistant Professor at Stanford
University’s Quantitative Sciences Unit.
Awarded: Whitney
Robinson received the Carol J Rowland Hogue
Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement Award. Dr. Robinson is
an instructors in the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology and Core Faculty Member at the Center for
Health Policy at Duke University. She explores why rates
of health and disease vary across groups.
Awarded:Beate
Ritz
was awarded the SER 2022 Kenneth Rothman Career
Accomplishment Award. Dr. Ritz is a Professor of
Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Her research focuses
on the
health effects of occupational and environmental toxins
such as pesticides, ionizing radiation, and air pollution
on chronic diseases including neurodegenerative and
neurodevelopmental disorders (Parkinson's disease, autism
cognition), cancers, and adverse birth outcomes and
asthma.
Awarded:Saad
Omer
was recently appointed the Harvey and Kate Cushing
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Yale
School of Medicine.
Died:Dr.
Gerardo Heiss,
MD PhD, the W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor at UNC,
passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 11, in Chapel
Hill. He was internationally known for his work in
noninvasive studies of subclinical atherosclerosis,
socioeconomic status over the life course, women’s health,
minority health, modifiable predictors of cardiovascular
disease outcomes and applications of electronic health
records in population research. Read more here.
Victoria Kamilar
Awarded:
Victoria Kamilar
and Amelia Wallace, two students at Johns Hopkins
School of Public Health, won the 2022 Dorothy and Arthur
Samet Student Support Fund in Epidemiology. This award
recognizes student accomplishments in respect to the
enrichment of the community.
Amelia Wallace
Awarded:
Jill M. Norris,
MPH, PhD was the recipient of the 2022 Kelly
West Award
for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology from the
American Diabetes Association. This award recognizes
significant contributions to the field of diabetes
epidemiology. She delivered a lecture on June 5 entitled,
Type 1 Diabetes and Diet: Moving from Epidemiology to
Opportunities for Precision Prevention. She is
currently Professor and Chair of the Department of
Epidemiology in the Colorado School of Public Health.
Named: Anne
Rimoin,
as chair of the newly established Gordon-Levin Endowed
Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health at the UCLA
Fielding School of Public Health. According to UCLA, Dr
Rimoin is an internationally recognized expert on emerging
infections, global heath, surveillance systems, and
vaccinations.
Appointed:Ronald Aubert, as Interim Dean of the Brown
University School of Public Health. Dr. Aubert serves
currently as interim associate dean for diversity and
inclusion at the School of Public Health and faculty
director of Brown’s Presidential
Scholars Program.
He also has faculty appointments in the Department of
Health Services, Practice and Policy, and at the Center
for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Aubert
obtained a PhD in epidemiology at the Gillings School of
Public Health in 1990 and worked at the Centers for
Disease Control in the Epidemic Intelligence Service. He
replaces Dean Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, on an interim basis
while Jha serves as White House coronavirus response
coordinator.
Named:Karen Brust, as hospital epidemiologist at
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Dr Brust served
previously at Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas where
she was an infectious disease clinician and director of
infection prevention and control.
Named:Brian King, as FDA’s new Center for Tobacco
Products Director, effective July 3, 2022. According to
the FDA Director Robeert Califf, “Dr. King brings
extensive and impressive expertise in tobacco prevention
and control and has broad familiarity with FDA from his
more than 10-year tenure at CDC.” Dr King served as the
deputy director for research translation at the Office of
Smoking and Health at CDC.
Appointed: Melinda
Pettigrew,
as Interim Dean at the Yale School of Public Health,
effective July 1, 2022. Dr. Pettigrew is currently deputy
dean of the Yale School of Public Health and Professor of
Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases). According to Yale, Dr
Pettigrew is an internationally recognized infectious
disease epidemiologist doing research on the global health
threat of antibiotic resistance. Current Dean Sten Vermund
is returning to full time teaching and research on June
30, 2022.
Presenter:Zuo-Feng Zhang, of the 15th annual Saxon
Graham Lecture at the University of Buffalo. Dr Zhang
lectured on the “Challenges and Opportunities of the
COVID-19 Pandemic on Non-communicable Disease
Epidemiology.” Zhang is currently distinguished professor
and chair of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology. Interestingly, he suggested in
his lecture that when daily mortality from COVID drops to
0.3 per million (99 deaths per day) then we might consider
COVID endemic. Recently, US deaths have averaged
approximately 300 per day.
Honored:Philip Kass, as honorary diplomate of the American
Veterinary Epidemiology Society. The status is awarded in
recognition of significant contributions to veterinary
epidemiology, public health, and One Health. Dr Kass is
currently vice provost of Academic Affairs and a professor
of analytic epidemiology at the University of California
Davis.
Appointed: Heather
Britt,
as executive director of Wilder Research, the research
unit of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in St Paul
Minnesota, effective June 13, 2022. The foundation
partners with nonprofits, government agencies and
policymakers across the country to develop data-informed
policy. Dr Britt is an epidemiologist who recently was
senior director of analytics with Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Minnesota.
Named:Amanda Simanek, as founding director of the Michael
Reese Research and Education Foundation Center for Health
Equity Research at Rosalind Franklin University of
Medicine and Science. The University is a private graduate
school in North Chicago, Illinois. According to Dr.
Simanek, a priority for her is ensuring future research
projects are responsive to community needs and contribute
to more equitable health outcomes among local communities
that have been marginalized, disadvantaged, and
underserved.
Named: Kirsten
Bibbins-Domingo,
as the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA) and the JAMA Network.
Dr Bibbins-Domingo is professor and chair of the
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.
She called the position a “dream job” and pledged to
restore the journal as a “trusted voice” in medicine
following a recent controversy over a podcast on systemic
racism.
Named:Newsha Ghaeli, to Time’s 100 Most Influential
Companies list. She co-founded Biobot, a company that is a
pioneer in wastewater epidemiology. Her company collects
data from over 700 sites representing over 100 million
people. “ "Think sort of like a 23 and me kit, but instead
of a saliva sample, it gets a stool sampling of sewage
samples. It’s like a 23 and me kit , but for cities,” said
Ghaeli. She has a degree in Architectural Studies and did
a fellowship at MIT where she met her co-founder.
Honored: Quarraisha
Abdool Karim,
with a Doctor of Science [honoris causa] from Rhodes
University in South Africa. Dr Abdool Karim is well known
for her research on preventing HIV infection in adolescent
girls and young women. She is co-founder of the Center for
AIDS Program of Research in South Africa.
Died:Cynthia Jean Berg, on March 6th, 2022 after a brief
battle with cancer. She began her federal career as an
Epidemic Intelligence Officer at CDC in 1985. According to
CDC, Cindy was often referred to as the “Godmother of
Maternal Mortality Research” and was known nationally and
internationally for her work to advance maternal health.
During her time in the Division of Reproductive Health,
Cindy was a key contributor to the development of the
first standardized data system to track pregnancy-related
deaths in the United States. The surveillance system,
CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System (PMSS), is
now used widely across the nation to better understand and
prevent pregnancy-related deaths.
Profiled: Adele
Houghton,
an architect and Doctor of Public Health student at the
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, in a Harvard News
publication. Houghton is pioneering a new field of
practice called “Architectural Epidemiology”. She started
exploring ways to bring health into the building
development process from the beginning. In the article,
she describes architectural epidemiology as a framework
for “turning small scale real estate decisions into
large-scale action on climate change and chronic disease.”
She has started a green building company and written a
book that lays out her methods.
Elected:
Tom Talbot,
as Vice-President of the Society for Healtcare
Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Dr Talbot is currently
professor of Medicine and chief hospital epidemiologist at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr Talbot will serve
as president-elect next year and as President in 2024 and
past president in 2025.
Profiled: Ban Majeed,
assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of
Population Health Sciences of the Medical College of
Georgia at Augusta University in Jagwire, the
University news publication. Dr Majeed was interviewed
about the process she used to successfully obtain a grant
for a longitudinal study to identify the determinants of
successful smoking cessation. Dr Majeed is also a painter
and has a dream to have her own cessation program. “ I
want to incorporate art in tobacco treatment because we
need to surround ourselves with beauty because the
ugliness is everywhere.”
Moving:Peter Jüni, Director of the Applied Health Research
Centre at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St.
Michael’s Hospital, and Professor at the Department of
Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management
and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, to a tenured
professorship in clinical trials and medicine at the
University of Oxford. He is also resigning as the
scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory
Table to take the Oxford position.
According to the Toronto Star, “Juni
developed a reputation for straight talk, providing blunt,
sometimes politically inconvenient commentary about what
the data was telling his team about the direction of the
pandemic.” Commenting on the science advisory role, Dr
Juni stated “The science table’s job is really about
bringing in the scientific perspective, what does
Ontario’s data tell us, what does the clinical evidence
say, and what is happening internationally. The
expectation was never that elected decision makers would
always follow what we said.”
Donor:Amy Greer, of a hand knit scarf to be added to a
museum collection of objects created during the COVID-19
pandemic. According to media accounts, Greer color-coded
her yarn to reflect the progress in getting people
vaccinated. The scarf ended up being a “seven foot story
of one of the biggest mobilization efforts in the
province’s [Ontario] history…She was shocked at the idea
that a museum might want it.” However, museums have been
collecting objects of various kinds to help future
generations better understand the happenings during the
pandemic. Greer is Associate Professor at the Ontario
Veterinary College, Department of Population Medicine,
University of Guelph.
Died:Jeremiah Stamler, age 102, at his home in Sag
Harbor Long Island New York. The American Heart
Association called Dr Stamler, “the father of preventive
cardiology.” His obituary in the NY Times quotes many
colleagues, including Lawrence Appel from Johns
Hopkins saying “Many colleagues, including myself, believe
that he is largely responsible for the remarkable decline
in coronary heart disease and stroke that occurred in the
US over the past few decades.” Another Donald
Lloyd-Jones at Northwestern states “He was part of a
generation of scientists who put the traditional risk
factors for heart disease on the map.” His obituaries
contain multiple inspiring and interesting facts at: https://nyti.ms/3gNCUKWhttps://bit.ly/34KmnoB
Resigned: Dawn
Comstock,
on February 7, 2022 as the Jefferson County Colorado
Public Health Director. According to news reports, she
transitioned about one year ago from being an epidemiology
professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz and had
felt motivated use her epidemiologic skills to help fight
the COVID pandemic. The resignation took place after a
special board of health meeting and the exact reasons for
the resignation were not made public at the time of
publication. According to Colorado Public Radio,
Comstock’s predecessor Dr Mark Johnson said he’s
sorry for Comstock and Jefferson County and wishes
Comstock the best. He also acknowledged how the pandemic
has made the job more difficult. “Public health has never
been more stressed than it has been over the past two and
half years, and much of this stress has fallen directly
and unfairly on local public health department directors,”
Johnson said.
Elected:Sten Vermund, as Vice President/President Elect of
the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Dr
Vermund is an infectious disease epidemiologist and
currently Dean of the Yale School of Public Health until
later this year. The Academy’s President said “Dean
Vermund’s leadership will ensure the Academy continues
well into the future the celebration of our state’s rich
and diverse science, technology, engineering, mathematics
and medical talent, and our commitment to informing about
and promoting science and engineering for the benefit of
the state.” Vermund said the Academy is “a rare resource,
almost unique across US states and territories.”
Appointed: David
Hayman,
to the Percival Carmine chair in epidemiology and public
health at New Zealand’s Massey University. According to
media accounts, the chair has been newly funded by Massey
alumni with $3.5 million for the next ten years. Dr Hayman
is a world expert in infectious disease ecology and has a
particular expertise in emerging bat infections. He is
involved in a research project exploring what factors
allow pathogens to jump from animals to humans.
Profiled: Quynh
Nguyen
and Thu Nguyen, as twin sisters
working side by side in the Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics at the University of Maryland. According to
Maryland Today, “…they’ve been on the same path almost
their entire lives, earning their undergraduate and
master’s degrees from the same schools in the same major.”
According to Quynh, “sometimes (siblings) feel like ‘I
need to be as good or better than my sibling. Our
relationship’s more collaborative’.” The fraternal pair do
not look more alike than other siblings do, however, their
research is similar though not identical.
Winner:Emily Smith, of a 2021 Distinguished Alumni award
from Wayland Baptist University. She is a research scholar
at the Duke Global Health Institute where her research
interests include children’s global surgery, strengthening
health systems in low-income countries, health economics
and global health policy. The University’s public
relations director stated “We have watched Dr. Smith’s
career blossom and have been so proud of the impact she
has had both on academia and on global public health. When
she became a voice of research and reason during the COVID
pandemic, we were even more proud to see her temper her
experience with her faith and grace in the public forum.
She is an excellent choice for a distinguished alumnus and
we are beyond honored to recognize her in this way.”
Profiled:Emmanuel Opada, Victoria County Texas Public
Health’s new epidemiologist as of November 2021. Prior to
taking this position Opada started his career in public
health in Nigeria and pursued his master’s degree in
epidemiology in the U.S. at St. Louis University. Opada
told local media “This is a great opportunity to pursue my
passion,” noting that he feels it’s his calling in public
health to provide analytic support to health
professionals.
Died: Zena Stein,
age 99, emerita professor of Columbia Mailman School of
Public Health. As reported by Columbia, Stein advanced
public health science while integrating social justice
into every aspect of her work. She and her late husband
Mervyn Susser, chair of epidemiology at Columbia
Mailman School from 1966 to 1978, were seminal figures in
the establishment of the discipline of epidemiology, said
the school. According to a remembrance by her three
children, including her son Ezra, a professor of
epidemiology at Columbia, “She was a brilliant and
extraordinary woman whose warmth, caring and insights
illuminated the lives she touched at home and thousands
across the world.” A full biography is available at:
https://bit.ly/3G0Q1T9
Appointed:
Una Grewal,
as Director of the Division of Population Health Research
(DiPHR) at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the
National Institutes of Health. Dr Grewal had been serving
as the acting director since February 2020 and previously
served as Deputy Director of DiPHR from 2013 to 2020.
Died:Stanley Music, age 82, in Tbilisi Georgia following
onset of severe COVID symptoms. Dr Music was a highly
regarded epidemiologist who served in a variety of
governmental roles at the state, federal, and
international levels. According to a bereavement notice
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr
Music was most notably known for his work with the World
Health Organization on smallpox eradication from 1973-1975
in Bangladesh. To read a full obituary describing his
varied career, visit: https://bit.ly/3u0cwVO
Appointed:Tom Inglesby, as the White House Covid testing
director, according to White House spokesperson Jen
Psaki. Inglesby is currently Director of the Johns
Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, and has
held multiple positions related to infectious diseases and
public health preparedness. US testing capacity has grown
from 50 million in September 2021to 300 million now.
Inglesby told Bloomberg “We’re going to keep moving at
this speed and faster.” The federal government will
release a plan for shipping 500 million tests to US
households.
Retiring: Kris
Ehresmann,
on February 2, 2022, as Infectious Disease Director from
the Minnesota Department of Health, according to the
Associated Press. Dr Ehresmann has served for more than
three decades at the Health Department. She is a leading
national expert on influenza and played leading roles in
controlling the measles outbreak in 2017 and the swine flu
pandemic in 2009.
Diagnosed:Mary-Louise McLaws, professor of epidemiology at
the University of New South Wales and advisor to the World
Health Organization, with a brain tumor according to her
Twitter account. She told followers, “After a severe
headache Thursday, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I
will now be on a month’s sick leave from UNSW and WHO.”
News reports indicated that Dr McLaws had become a
recognizable public figure in Australia for her guidance
and commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Died:Jennifer Kelsey, on October 13, 2021 at age 79 from
complications following a stroke. Dr Kelsey was former
head of the Division of Epidemiology at Stanford Medicine
and earlier at Columbia. Before that she taught at Yale
for more than a decade. According to the Stanford news
release reporting her death, Dr Kelsey was known for her
detailed methodology. Her research focused on the
incidence and causes of musculoskeletal disorders. She was
also known for her teaching skills as well as her love of
golden retrievers.
Appointed:Bruce Dye, Department Chair for Community Dentistry
and Population Health and the Delta Dental Endowed Chair
of Early Childhood Caries Prevention at the University of
Colorado School of Dental Medicine. Dr Dye comes to
Colorado from the National Institute of Dental and
Craniofacial Research. He is Scientific editor and Co
Project Director of Oral Health in America, a soon to be
released NIH report on Oral Health in America, the
government’s first retrospective and comprehensive report
on oral health in 20 years.
Honored:Salim Abdool Karim, with an honorary Doctor of
Science degree from Rhodes University in South Africa. Dr
Abdool Karim is widely recognized for his scientific and
leadership contributions in AIDS and COVID-19. His primary
academic appointments are as Director of the Center for
AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and
CAPRISA Professor for Global Health in the Department of
Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University. In remarks about his degree, Dr
Abdool Karim said “…In the course of both the HIV and
COVID-19 pandemics, I have personally witnessed the
importance of staying true to science and evidence.”
Protest:
by Cesar Victora refusing the Grand Cross of the
National Order of Scientific Merit granted by the
government of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
The award is one of the highest for scientists. According
to Victora, Professor Emeritus at the Federal University
of Pelotas and winner of the Doll prize in epidemiology in
2021, the government “not only ignores but actively
boycotts the recommendations of epidemiology and
collective health.” In a published letter Victora states
“as a scientist and epidemiologist I have made public,
through lectures and scientific articles, my complete
opposition to the way the COVID-19 pandemic has been faced
by this government.”
Profiled:Vidya Maharaj, in Browngirl magazine as a research
scientist and chef at Diya Miami restaurant. She told the
magazine, “When we immigrated, my parents like most Indian
parents, wanted me to be a doctor. I didn’t end up going
to medical school, but got my degree in epidemiology and
was interested in the lucrative business of
pharmaceuticals.” When the opportunity arose she began
cooking in her family's Indo-Caribbean restaurant and has
since advanced her career both in pharmaceuticals and as
an executive chef.
Died:Randall Todd, on October 7, 2021 from inoperable
anaplastic astrocytoma. He was Director, Division of
Epidemiology and Public Health Preparedness for Washoe
County Nevada for 14 years of his forty year career. He
also had served as an adjunct faculty member teaching
epidemiology at the University of Nevada Reno. His
obituary notes his frequent struggle to provide good
public health services in the face of political
opposition. His family called him the “Dr Fauci” of
Nevada.
Honored:Raman Gangakhedkar, with a 2021 Padma award in
India. The Padma awards are one of the highest civilian
honors of India given annually on the eve of Republic Day.
The award for distinguished service seeks to recognize
achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines
where an element of public service is involved. Dr
Gangakhedkar is a former scientist at the Indian Council
of Medical Research. He is currently a member of the WHO
expert group tasked with probing the origins of COVID-19.
Named:Paul Glasziou, as top researcher in epidemiology by
the Australian’s 2021 Research Magazine. Dr Glaziou is a
clinical epidemiologist and Bond University Director of
the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare. The
Australian's 2021 Research magazine names the top
researcher and top research institution in each field of
research, based on the number of citations for papers
published in the top 20 journals in each field over the
past five years. According to the magazine, Dr Galsziou’s
research mainly focuses on what he calls “big
neglected problems – like antibiotic resistance and
antibiotic stewardship, non-drug therapies and
overtreatment and overdiagnosis”. The causes of research
wastage is another major field of study.
Died:Robert Rinsky, at age 70, after an extended
illness. Dr Rinsky was formerly a research epidemiologist
at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health. A recent testimonial for Dr Rinsky written by
Laurence Reed, former editor of Public Health Reports,
focused on his research showing that the risk of death
from leukemia rose with increasing workplace exposure to
benzene. Dr Rinsky was a former editor of Public Health
Reports where he was credited with enhancing the journal’s
scientific rigor and respect in the public health field.
Profiled:
Ana Diez Roux,
Dean and Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at Drexel
University’s Dornsife School of Public Health in AL DIA
news media. Born in Argentina and educated in both her
native country and in the US, Dr Diez Roux became very
interested in understanding how social and economic things
affect health. During her time at Johns Hopkins, according
to AL DIA, she told the media “So epidemiology is a
perfect tool for that because you can study differences in
health across different population groups and… what we can
do to [create] change”. She described her work as very
interdisciplinary. “It integrates things from sociology,
from psychology, from medicine, from biology…to understand
what the main drivers of health are.”
Appointed:Theoklis Zaoutis, as the new president of EODY, The
Hellenic National Public Health Organization. It is
responsible for surveillance and control of infectious
diseases in Greece and functions under the supervision of
the Ministry of Health and in close collaboration with
the local public health authorities. Dr Zaoutis is
Professor of Pediatrics at the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens and Professor of Epidemiology at the
Perelman Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania
and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Retiring:William Knowler, after 46 years at the National
Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Since 1979, Knowler
has served as chief of the Diabetes Epidemiology and
Clinical Research Section in NIDDK’s Phoenix Epidemiology
and Clinical Research Branch. He has devoted decades of
research into the behavioral, genetic, and environmental
factors for type 2 diabetes and its complications,
particularly among Southwestern American Indian
populations. To read more about
Dr Knowler’s career, visit
The NIH
Recordclick here:
https://bit.ly/2Y0d2pi
Honored: Reiko
Kishi,
with the John Goldsmith Award given by the
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. This
award was created to honor the legacy of Dr John
Goldsmith, one of the organizers, early leaders, and
constant supporter of the ISEE. This award is given to
investigators for "sustained and outstanding contributions
to the knowledge and practice of environmental
epidemiology." Recipients have typically contributed in
substantive and innovative fashion to the methods and
practice of epidemiology over many years. According to
ISEE, Dr Kishi was a trailblazer in the elucidation of
various health impacts of developmental exposure to
low-level environmental chemicals in birth cohort studies.She
is currently a Distinguished Professor of Hokkaido
University, Center for Environmental and Health Sciences,
Sapparo Japan.
Winner:Cesar Victora, of the 2021 Richard Doll Prize in
Epidemiology. The prize is awarded by the
International Epidemiological Association for a body of
scientific research in epidemiology that has advanced
understanding of conditions that are important for
population health. Dr Victora is Emeritus Professor of
Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil, and Director of
the International Center for Equity in Health.
Honored: Jaime Hart,
with the Tony McMichael Mid-Career Award given by
the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.
This award was created in the memory of Dr Tony McMichael,
a world renowned epidemiologist known not only for his
scientific work, but also for has compassionate mentoring
of junior colleagues. According to ISEE, Dr. Hart has been
dedicated to supporting the scientific dissemination and
translation of environmental epidemiology research. She is
currently Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham and
Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School.
Hired:Sam Byrne, as assistant professor of biology and
global health at Middlebury College in Vermont. Dr Byrne’s
interest is in health disparities. He will teach
epidemiology at Middlebury. He formerly taught at St
Lawrence University.
Honored: Colin
Soskolne,
with the Research Integrity Award given by the
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. The
ISEE Research Integrity Award honors those in
environmental epidemiology who have demonstrated
exceptional integrity in the face of pressure from special
interests. According to ISEE, Dr. Soskolne pioneered the
development of ethics guidelines for the profession. He
has had leadership roles in supporting the International
Network for Epidemiology in Policy’s mission of integrity,
ethics, and evidence in policies impacting health. Dr.
Soskolne has finally retired, according to "self
reporting", after 28 years at the University of Alberta
and multiple years of additional volunteer service.
Honored: Gauri
Dasai,
with the Rebecca James Baker Award given by the
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. This
award is in memory of Rebecca James Baker, a young
investigator with a commitment to environmental
epidemiology as a tool for improving public health and
quality of life. She worked on many international studies
with people from different cultures and backgrounds, and
was an active member in the Society. The award is given to
new investigators who embody her approach to
epidemiological research. According to ISEE, Dr Desai’s
research interests are primarily in the area of
environmental epidemiology, focusing on understanding the
impact of environmental toxins on children’s growth and
development. She is also interested in understanding the
role of diet in mitigating the toxicity of environmental
exposures. Her recent research work has been among
Uruguayan schoolchildren and Puerto Rican women. Dr Desai
is currently clinical assistant professor in the
Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the
University of Buffalo.
Hired:
Michael Osterholm, as Senior Advisor for Beacon Global
Strategies, a strategic advisory firm focusing on global
public policy, government procurement, and geopolitical
risk analysis. Dr. Osterholm is Director of the Center for
Infectious Disease Research and Policy, at the University
of Minnesota. "I am excited Dr. Osterholm is joining the
BGS team at such a critical time," said Andrew Shapiro,
Partner and Managing Director at Beacon. "As the ongoing
pandemic has demonstrated, the intersection of global
health and national security has never been stronger. Dr.
Osterholm's expertise and breadth of experience will be a
tremendous asset for BGS and our clients.
Resigned: Caitlin
Pedati, State Medical Director and Epidemiologist at the
Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) which announced Dr
Pedati’s plans to leave the agency effective late October.
She plans to pursue new career opportunities, according to
IDPH. “I want to thank Dr. Pedati for
her outstanding service to the people of Iowa,
especially throughout the pandemic,” Gov. Kim Reynolds
said in a released statement. “She has been instrumental
to our state’s strong COVID-19 response and a valued
member of my team. I wish her much success and
happiness in all that she pursues.”
Recognized: Field
epidemiologists on World
Field Epidemiology Day on September 7. On this day in
1854, John Snow took his findings from his investigation
of the Broad Street cholera outbreak to local officials to
help lead them to take action to remove the handle on the
offending water pump. September 7 has been set aside to
recognize and raise awareness of the vital role played by
the world’s disease detectives. The Day is sponsored by
TEPHINET, the global network of 75 Field Epidemiology
Training Programs in more than 100 countries which have
graduated more than 14,000 disease detectives.
Threatened:
Gili Regev-Yochay, by death messages sent to her
anonymously in reaction to her statements about Covid
vaccines. Dr Regev-Youchay is director of the Infectious
Disease Epidemiology Unit at Sheba Medical Center in
Israel. The Times of Israel described the messages as
“Kill yourself before you recommend another person inject
[a vaccine] and “May you suffer from paralysis until your
last day.” A second member of the Sheba staff has also
received equally worrisome threats, according to the
Times.
Appointed:Chen Chien-jen, epidemiologist in Taiwan who served
as vice-president of Taiwan from 2016 to 2020, to the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican. The role of
members of the Academy is to advise on matters involving
science. Chen is currently professor and researcher at
Taipei’s Academic Sinica.
Appointed:Margaret Daniele Fallin, as a Bloomberg Centennial
Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr
Fallin is currently chair of the Department of Mental
Health and holds joint positions in the School’s
departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and in the
School of Medicine at Hopkins. Dr Fallin’s research
focuses on neuropsychiatric disorders, primarily autism,
and developing applications and methods for genetic and
epigenetic epidemiology.
Winner:Gabby Thomas, of a bronze medal in the 200 meter
race at the Tokyo Olympics. Thomas is currently a graduate
student in epidemiology at the University of Texas.
Elected:Onyebuchi Arah, in June as president-elect of the
Society for Epidemiologic Research. Dr Arah is professor
of epidemiology at the University of California—Los
Angeles Fielding School of Public Health and the founding
associate dean for global health at UCLA.
Knighted:Albert Hofman, in the Order of the Lion of the
Netherlands for exceptional service to the community. This
is the oldest and highest civilian order of chivalry in
the Netherlands. Hofman is chair of the Department of
Epidemiology at Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health.
Harvard News described Hofman as the most highly cited
scientist in the Netherlands and an internationally
recognized leader in the epidemiology of common neurologic
and vascular diseases, in particular dementia and stroke.
Died:Ralph Katz, age 77, on May 26, 2021 after a brief
illness. According to his obituary, Dr. Katz had a long
career as an epidemiologist and professor at Walter Reed,
the University of Minnesota, the University of
Connecticut, and as chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Health Promotion at the New York
University College of Dentistry. About Dr Katz as a
person, his obituary states “His enthusiasm in life
extended well beyond academics. He navigated life with
unbridled optimism, good humor, and balance. He was
compassionate, saw potential in everyone, and, even in his
last days, he showed great positivity, strength, and
thoughtfulness.”
Winner:Lauren De Crescenzo, of the 208 mile Unbound Gravel
endurance cycling race in Emporia Kansas in early June
2021. De Crescenzo, age 30, is an epidemiologist at CDC
and a pro cyclist. After winning the race she was asked by
the publication Bicycling how she is able to train working
forty hours a week. She answered, “Keeping things as
simple as possible is the way to go. At this point, I’m
just doing what’s going to get me through the day, what
absolutely needs to be done today. I’m just trying to
continue this lifestyle for the moment, but I know this
pace is ultimately unsustainable.”
Selected:Vasan Ramachandran, as winner of the 2021 Louis and
Artur Lucian award to one researcher from around the world
who has made outstanding contributions to the field of
circulatory diseases, especially for his work on
hypertension and cardiovascular risk. Dr Ramachandran is
a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine,
professor of epidemiology at the BU School of Public
Health, and is also Director of the Framingham study.
Named: Raynard
Washington,
as Director-designee of the Mecklenburg County North
Carolina Health Department. Washington has been serving
as the Deputy Public Health Director for the county. He
previously was chief epidemiologist and deputy
commissioner with the Philadelphia Department of Public
Health.
Appointed:David Shoham, as Chair of the East Tennessee State
University Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in
the College of Public Health. Dr Shoham was formerly with
Loyola University Chicago as an associate professor and
director of the Institute of Public Health, Public Health
Programs, and the Master of Public Health program. “We are
pleased to welcome Dr. Shoham to the ETSU College of
Public Health,” said Dr. Randy Wykoff, dean. “He is a
widely regarded researcher in his field and also brings
strong leadership and vision that will guide and continue
to grow our Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
Filing Lawsuit: Jennifer
Smith,
former Hawaii Department of Health epidemiologist,
against the state and the Director of the Department of
Health. Smith was terminated from her job in May according
to media accounts. Smith alleges that she was terminated
because she spoke out publicly last year to criticize the
state’s contact tracing program practices and reporting.
Hired:Victoria Zigmont, to join the faculty at the School
of Applied Sciences at the University of Mississippi. She
comes to Mississippi from the Department of Public Health
at Southern Connecticut State University. She currently
works as a clinical data scientist consultant for the
Department of Data Science for OhioHealth. Zigmont is
described by the associate dean at the University of
Mississippi as possessing strong leadership capabilities,
enthusiasm for working with students, and knowledge in the
field of epidemiology that will enhance the school’s
undergraduate and graduate programs in public health.
Selected:Gabby Thomas, UT Austin epidemiology student, to
represent the U.S. at the Tokyo Olympics. She posted the
3rd best time in the U.S. history for the 200 meters at
the USOC qualifying event in Michigan this year and just
below the record set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
She is enrolled to earn a graduate degree in epidemiology
and health care management.
Editor’s Note: The
next three epidemiologists were singled out by
Fortune magazine for
stepping up in truly unprecedented times to
make the world better and inspiring others to do the same.
Named:
Jessica Malaty Rivera,
an infectious disease epidemiologist and the science
communication lead for the COVID
Tracking Project,
to the list of Fortune magazine’s 2021 list of the World’s
50 Greatest Leaders. According to Fortune, she regularly
answers ask-me-anything Q&As via her
Instagram stories,
where she dispels common misconceptions and empathetically
shares how her young family is adapting. She was 45th
on the list with Ellie Murray included below. Both were
named as "social media epidemiologists".
Named:
Ellie Murray,
associate epidemiology professor at Boston University, to
the list of Fortune magazine’s 2021 list of the World’s 50
Greatest Leaders( #45). According to Fortune, Ellie Murray
a.k.a.@EpiEllie a.k.a. @EpiEllie,
is known for animating simple illustrations in her
educational videos. Throughout the past year-plus, she
has, among other activities highlighted by Fortune,
outlined a #ContactBudget
points system that
individuals can use to assess exposure risk.
Named:Seth Berkley, American epidemiologist who has led
the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative since 2011 to
Fortune magazine’s 2021 list of the World’s 50 Greatest
Leaders (#14). During the COVID-19 pandemic, according to
Fortune, Berkley has championed the COVAX partnership to
bring vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus
to every corner of the planet, not just the wealthy
ones. As of mid-May, the COVAX partnership had already
delivered 59 million vaccines to more than 120 countries,
and it has raised nearly $7 billion so far to secure some
2 billion doses.
Newsmaker:Alvina Chu, Orange County Florida infectious
disease epidemiologist, called “one of my secret weapons,”
by Raul Pino, director of the Orange County Health
Department. Pino told local media, Chu is someone he can
trust, often tapping her to help lead the coronavirus
weekly briefings for the county. Reflecting on the recent
attacks on Asian Americans during May, which is Asian
American Pacific Islander heritage month, provoked by
reactions to the pandemic, Chu said harmful rhetoric
toward the Asian community has made battling the pandemic
tougher, personally.
Appointed:Jasmine Zapata,
pediatrician
and public health physician as Wisconsin’s new chief
medical officer and epidemiologist for community health at
the Wisconsin
Department of Health Services. Dr Zapata
told Madison 365. “What really excited me about this
position was that the vision of DHS is ‘everyone living
their best life,’ and their mission is to protect and
promote the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin…I
felt like every aspect of my medicine and public health
training, every person I ever connected with, everything
just lined up for me to fit in well for this role. I was
so excited because I felt like this was the next right
step in my purpose.”
Newsmaker:Emily Smith, assistant professor of epidemiology in
Baylor's Department of Public Health, and founder of Your
Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist page on Facebook which
now has close to 100,000 followers, approximately half of
whom are Evangelical Christians. Her surprising and
frightening challenges with the Facebook page during the
pandemic in the form of threats and pushback were the
subject of an article by Interfaith America entitled “Meet
the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist Encouraging Her
Fellow Christians To Get Vaccinated”. Speaking about her
view of what it means to “love thy neighbor”, she said
“Hopefully, it can give people hope there’s more to
Christianity than what is being shown on Fox News.”
https://bit.ly/3yNGjRG
Elected:Johanna Ravenhurst, to the South Hadley
Massachusetts Board of Health. Ravenhurst is a doctoral
candidate in epidemiology at UMass and the lead
epidemiological data analyst for the UMass Amherst Public
Health Promotion Center. She told Inside UMass
“My training has inspired me to seek
opportunities to complement my ongoing academic work with
practical public health work in my own community…. I look
forward to leading and supporting initiatives that will
improve the health and wellbeing of people living
locally.”
Died: George
Seage III,
on January 2, 2021 at age 63 from acute myeloid leukemia.
Dr Seage was professor of epidemiology at the Harvard
School of Public Health and was particularly well known
for his work on behavioral aspects of HIV transmission and
in investigating the effects of antiretroviral therapy on
the long-term health of children with perinatal HIV
infection. In a statement from Michelle Williams,
Dean at Harvard, she said “George
leaves a remarkable legacy not just in infectious disease
epidemiology, but also in the great love he shared with
his family and the indelible imprint he left on so many
dear friends and colleagues. It was an immense privilege
to work with and know him.” A memorial recounting his
professional and personal life will be published in May
2021 in Epidemiology by his wife Ann Aschengau, professor
of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public
Health.
Moving:Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist in Utah is
quitting her job at the state level to take a position as
executive health director of the Salt Lake County Health
Department. Dunn was a prominent spokesperson during the
COVID1-19 pandemic and drew strong supporters as well as
detractors for her focus on wearing masks and maintaining
restrictions on businesses and gatherings, according to
local media accounts. The governor praised her as one of
his most trusted advisers and the Utah Department of
Health said “ it’s hard to overstate the truly lifesaving
contributions Dr Dunn has made to Utah’s COVID-19
response. Whether it was her steady voice at the press
briefing podium, or her capable leadership at the table
where decisions are made, Dr Dunn was always a champion
for the health and well-being of Utah residents.”
Named:Jennie H Kwon, as vice chair for the Society for
Healthcare Epidemiology of America Research Committee. Dr
Kwon is an assistant professor of medicine at Washington
University School of Medicine in St Louis. She is also an
associate hospital epidemiologist and the associate
medical director for infection prevention at Barnes-Jewish
hospital.
Resigned:
Mario Fafangel,
as an advisor on the panel providing advice to the
government on measures to contain COVID-19. Dr Fafangel is
head of the center for communicable diseases at the
National Institute of Public Health in Slovenia. This is
Dr Fafangel’s second resignation from the panel, according
to local media accounts. He reportedly resigned because
decisions made were often in disagreement with the
opinions and protocols of epidemiologists. According to
Fafangel, when he received the invitation to rejoin the
expert team, “…I honestly believed things would be
different this time around. They are different indeed,
worse.”
Debuted:
Kate Q Johnson,
postdoctoral fellow and outcomes health researcher using
epidemiology methods at the University of Washington, has
been published with her first historical romance novel
entitled “Daughter of Carthage, Son of Rome”. According to
her publisher Bellastoria Press, the romance novel reveals
the similarities between ancient Rome and today.
Elected:Christian Abnet, to the American Epidemiological
Society. Dr Abnet is Chief of the Metabolic Epidemiology
Branch in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics
at the National Cancer Institute. According to the NCI, Dr
Abnet is an international expert in the etiology of
esophageal and gastric cancers. His studies have focused
on the effects of diet, environmental exposures, and
genone-wide association studies of common genetic
variation and cancer risk.
Died:Stanley Foster, of bone marrow disease on March 14,
2021. Dr. Foster was a former CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Service Officer with a colorful and varied career in
smallpox eradication, international health, and as faculty
member at the Rollins School of Public Health. CDC’s
principal deputy director Anne Schuchat noted “Stan’s
frontline leadership in the eradication of smallpox made
the virus history.”
Elected:Lindsay Morton, to the American Epidemiological
Society. Dr Morton is Deputy Chief of the Radiation
Epidemiology Branch in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology
and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute. According
to NCI, Dr Morton is internationally recognized for
groundbreaking research on hematologic malignancies and
multiple primary cancers. Speaking of her and Dr Abnet
above, NCI Division Director Stephen Chanock said “this
prestigious honor was bestowed upon two very fitting
leaders in epidemiology.”
Profiled:Syra Madad, in Aljazeera News as “The
epidemiologist and her fight to prevent the next
pandemic”. Dr Mada is Senior Director
of the System-wide Special Pathogens
Program at NYC Health + Hospitals. In the article, Dr
Madad’s appearance in Netflix’s docuseries “Pandemic: How
To Prevent an Outbreak” is highlighted.
Michael Osterholm,
in the Minneapolis Star as “Pandemic predictor Michael
Osterholm gives us science and the hope to cope with
it.”Osterholm is Director of the University of Minnesota’s
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. In the
profile, Osterholm says “This isn’t a pandemic of just a
virus…This is a pandemic of emotion. This is a pandemic of
pain and suffering that has to do with lost jobs and lost
persons…This is not just a public health journey. This is
a personal journey for all of us.”
Newsmaker:Jennifer Dillaha, described on local media in
Arkansas as someone who went from being "an everyday
epidemiologist to a health hero". Dr Dillaha is Arkansas
State Epidemiologist and Medical Director for
Immunizations and Outbreak Response for the Arkansas
Department of Public Health. Reflecting on the past year
of pandemic challenges, Dillaha told KNWA “ Some of us
were reflecting today on the gratitude we have for being
able to play a role that we’re trained for, were prepared
for…It hasn’t always been fun. Sometimes it’s been really
hard work.”
Resigned:Marcel
Salathé,
from the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force.
Salathé
is currently associate professor at the
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne He
is the director of the Lab of Digital Epidemiology in
Geneva. According to media reports, Salathé was appalled
by Switzerland’s shortcomings in the digital field. He
said, “Medical data exchanged by fax, codes for the
SwissCovid application sent with an immense delay,
computer systems deficient for vaccination…In a few weeks,
we have seen how much the country is behind in
digitization.” Salathé is launching a new organization
CH++ to advance digital skills policy, taking action with
the administration, and helping citizens to forge a
digital future, according to the media report.
Died:Jane Murphy, at age 91, on February 9, 2021 after a
stroke. Dr Murphy was a former professor in the Department
of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health, a faculty member at Massachusetts General
Hospital, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at
Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. She served as
Director of the Stirling County study in psychiatric
epidemiology, the longest running study of its kind
seeking to understand the prevalence and types of mental
illness across generations in a cross-cultural community.
Resigned:Karthik Kondapally, an epidemiology investigator
with the Ohio Department of Health. The resignation came
after it was uncovered that the health department had
undercounted Ohio’s COVID-19 deaths by 34%. Kondapally was
responsible for reconciling two mortality data sets (real
time death data and death certificate data) which led to
omitting approximately 4,000 deaths, according to
Stephanie McCloud the Director of the Ohio Health
Department. She told the media, “If there is any solace to
take from this, I was glad we were not overreporting the
deaths. That through that manual verification , we had not
inadvertently overreported and exaggerated the problem. At
the time, deaths went up from 12,000 to 16,000.
Actions
taken recently by the Ohio Health Department which appear
to be related to this incident include reassignment of
Sietske de Fitjer, Ohio state epidemiologist, from
chief of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases to the Bureau
of Health Improvement and Wellness. Also, Kristen
Dickerson, formerly Manager for Statewide Health,
Wellness, and Special Programs at the Bureau of Workers’
Compensation has been appointed Chief of the Bureau of
Infectious Diseases.
Honored:Mike Ryan, WHO epidemiologist and Head of WHO’s
Health Emergencies Program, with the 2020 Romero award
from Trocaire, an Irish non-governmental organization, for
“consistently highlighting the threat of COVID-19 in the
developing world and the need for global solidarity in our
response to the virus.” The award is named in honor of
Saint Oscar Romero who was assassinated in 1980.
(See related article in this issue.)
Died:John Boring, at age
90, at his home in Decatur Georgia on January 10, 2021. He
was a former CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in
Atlanta and eventually
became a professor of epidemiology at the Emory Rollins
School of Public Health which he helped to create. He
served as the first Epidemiology Department Chair. At
Rollins, according to his obituary, he brought in
acclaimed faculty, developed new curriculum and programs,
and taught generations of doctors and public health
students the value of evidence-based medicine.
Appointed:Dawn Comstock, as Executive Director of Jefferson
County Public Health (JCPH) in Colorado. Comstock was
previously affiliated with the Colorado School of Public
Health and Environment at the University of Colorado
Anschutz. In naming her to the position, the JCPH Board
President said, “Her passion, vision, and zeal for public
health equity will inspire the Jefferson County team to
great achievements. Said Comstock, “I am adamant that we
must identify innovative methods to address equity
issues…While a physician cares of the health of an
individual, we in public health care for the entire
population.”
Died:Pierre Claquin, age 74, in Paris on February 4,
2021 as a result of diabetes and kidney disease according
to the Daily Star in Bangladesh. Dr Claquin was a former
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer who worked for
many years in Bangladesh for small
pox and poliovirus eradication. He spent much of his
professional career in Bangladesh working for primary
health care, maternal-child health and expanded programme
on immunization projects. He was also an internationally
renowned photographer who loved to portray the life of
marginalised people and their livelihoods
Hired: Jodie
Guest, infectious disease epidemiologist, as advisor for
the 2021 Iditarod team and its COVID-19 mitigation plan
for the race scheduled for March 2021. Dr. Guest is
research professor and vice chair of the Department of
Epidemiology at Emory University. She told the Iditarod
newsletter, “Being able to provide epidemiology expertise
to a sport I love is an exciting opportunity as we ensure
this race will continue safely in 2021 and beyond.”
Appointed:Sean Hennessy, as Interim Director of the Division
of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics at the Perlman School of Medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr Hennessy is currently
Professor of Epidemiology and of Systems Pharmacology and
Translational Therapeutics at Penn. He also directs Penn’s
Center for Pharmacoepidemiology Research and Training (CPeRT).
Died:George Schmid, of Stone Mountain Georgia, on
January 14, 2021 at age 73. The cause of death was
neuroendocrine cancer. Dr Schmid worked with the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and at the World Health
Organization in Genev As described in his obituary, his
initial work at the CDC focused on zoonotic diseases, but
his epidemiological skills quickly led to him being tasked
to leadership roles in ground breaking research on Lyme
Disease and the toxic shock syndrome. Within a few years,
he began his work on control and prevention programs for
sexually transmitted infections and associated diseases.
His expertise was widely recognized, and, over the years,
he was involved in many projects on six continents.
Died: Daniel
Wartenberg,
on August 21, 2020 at the age of 68. He contributed for
many years as an environmental epidemiologist at the
Rutgers Medical School Occupational Health Sciences
Institute. He was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s
disease at age 61 and became an Alzheimer’s advocate and
teacher. An especially appreciative memorial recounting
his professional and personal life was published in
November 2020 in Environmental Health Perspectives by
colleagues and family.
Honored:Michael Baker, as a Member of the New Zealand Order
of Merit for his services to public health science. Dr
Baker has been professor of public health at the
University of Otago in Wellington since 2013 and is
director of the Health Environment Infection Research
Unit. He helped promote the strategy to eliminate COVID
from New Zealand rather than focus on mitigation and
flattening the curve. He told local media, “I guess it
symbolizes the fact that the population approach that we
all practice—and it’s a big team of us doing this—really
can make a difference, I think, particularly when the
country is confronted with a new poorly-understood threat
like the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Newsmaker:David Dausey, Duquesne University epidemiologist
who specializes in the performance of public health
systems, told WITF broadcasting services that “The leadup
and development of vaccines, that was fantastic. But you
know, just to absolve yourself of responsibility after
that—saying that it’s the state’s issue—that’s patently
absurd…the whole point of the federal government is that
they are supposed to be the maestro here.” He compared the
current vaccine distribution to a “train wreck in slow
motion.”
Died: J Michael
Lane,
at age 84, of colon cancer in October in Atlanta Georgia.
He was a leader of CDC’s smallpox eradication program
which helped eliminate smallpox from the world in 1977.
According to his obituary in the NY Times, he
joined the
C.D.C. and, starting in 1964, devoted his entire working
life to the crusade against smallpox and other infectious
diseases, and against famine in impoverished countries.
Honored: JoAnn
Manson,
with the American Heart Association 2020 Research
Achievement award for outstanding contributions to
cardiovascular research. In giving the award, the AHA
President recognized Dr Manson for “…pivotal
contributions to our understanding of the role of
menopausal estrogen therapy in cardiovascular disease,
particularly related to estrogen’s overall risk-benefit
profile. Much of what we know today about women’s health
and cardiovascular disease is a result of Dr. Manson’s
pioneering efforts.” Dr Manson holds appointments as
Professor at Harvard Medical School and the
School of Public Health and is Chief of the Division of
Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Died:
Diane Elizabeth Bennett,
at age 72, in Atlanta Georgia on September 10, 2020. Dr
Bennett was an alumna of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She
held multiple positions during her public health career
including at NIOSH in Cincinnati, OH, the Indian Health
Service in Arizona, in Sierra Leone to direct the Lassa
Fever Project, with the WHO Global Program for AIDS in
Geneva, in London with the Communicable Disease
Surveillance Center on tuberculosis, and with CDC
coordinating standards for TB testing in Russia. In 2002
she resumed work on HIV, specifically surveillance of drug
resistant HIV-AIDs and with the WHO Global AIDS Program in
2006-2009.
Honored:Meghan Winters, with the Trailblazer Award from the
Canadian Institute of Health Research. Dr Winters is an
epidemiologist and associate professor at Simon Fraser
University. The award recognizes her achievements within
the field of active transportation either on foot or
bicycle and studying how city infrastructure can make
these forms of exercise more accessible for people.
Died:Alan Bisno, at age 84, in Miami Florida on August
10, 2020. Dr Bisno was an alumnus of the Epidemic
Intelligence Service at CDC and had a long career as a
physician, infectious disease researcher, and educator.
During his long career he was affiliated with the
University of Tennessee and the University of Miami Miller
School of Medicine. He led classical investigations of the
epidemiology of rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis as
well as other aspects of streptococcal infections ranging
from pathogenesis through descriptions of clinical
syndromes of disease.
Died:Rebecca Shadowen, age 62, following a four month
battle with COVID-19. She was an infectious disease
specialist with the health care provider Med Center Health
in Bowling Green Kentucky and a fellow in the Society of
Hospital Epidemiologists of America and the American
College of Physicians. She worked with the Bowling
Green-Warren County Coronavirus workgroup. The governor of
Kentucky called her a “front line hero who worked
tirelessly to protect the lives of others.” According to
media accounts, Shadowen was a vocal proponent of social
distancing, face masks, and other guidelines meant to keep
Americans healthy.
Profiled: Caitlin
Rivers,
in Science magazine, as a “clear-eyed, tactful narrator of
the unfolding pandemic” and someone on Twitter who has
“made an art of giving a big picture, 280 character view
to her followers who now number more than 140,000.” Rivers
trained at Virginia Tech in genetics, bioinformatics, and
computational biology, with a specialization in
computational epidemiology and is currently Senior Scholar
at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental
Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health. Her research focuses on improving
epidemic preparedness and response through the use of
modeling and forecasting, data standards and data sharing,
and public health policy. She has called for creating a
National Infectious Disease Forecasting Center akin to the
National Weather Service that would put modeling experts
inside the government, according to Science.
Hired:Madison Riethman, as the COVID-19 response
coordinator and health project manager at Reed College.
With a master’s degree in epidemiology from St Louis
University, Reed hired her to collaborate with
the school’s COVID Risk Assessment Group and Response Team
and support ongoing testing and contact tracing efforts.
According to Reed, she is expected to develop and evaluate
systems for tracking and reporting data and provide her
public health expertise to Reed’s ongoing infectious
disease prevention efforts.
On Leave:
Jennifer Smith, Hawaii Department of Health
virologist and COVID case investigator, with pay effective
September 4, 2020. Smith brought attention to deficiencies
in Hawaii’s contact tracing program which led to the
departure of the state health director and placing the
state epidemiologist on paid leave. Media reports are
asking if Smith can be legally protected as a
whistleblower. According to Hawaii’s governor, “No one in
Hawaii should ever have to fear retaliation if they
express their concerns about how people are acting. This
is America for god sake.”
On Leave:Sarah Park, Hawaii state epidemiologist, has taken
a paid leave of absence according to the Hawaii Star
Advertiser following criticism of the COVID 19 testing and
contact tracing program under her leadership. The State
Health Director Bruce Anderson retired just before
Park went on leave. Hawaii has seen a surge in cases in
the past two months and the issuance of a second
stay-at-home order which has caused “untold economic
damage”, according to the Star Advertiser. A leading
health professional in the state told the paper,
“The removal of both Bruce Anderson and
Sarah Park was an essential move to begin a new process at
the executive level in the state of Hawaii…It is clear
that aggressive use of testing, contact tracing and
quarantine is the only way our state will be able to
follow the best practice leads of the rest of the world
and begin to stop the surge of COVID in Hawaii and the
numerous deaths that are avoidable.”
Ailing: Margot
Gage Witvliet,
Associate Professor of Social Epidemiology at Lamar
University, with persistent COVID-19 symptoms. Dr Witvliet
traveled to Europe in March and started having flu-like
symptoms 10 days after returning to the US. She described
her plight as being one of the COVID "long-haulers", that
is, persons who have symptoms of the illness but never
recover completely. At one point she felt like she was
dying and has not felt well for over four months as
described in a recent account published at The
Conversation.
Regretful:Linda Bell, South Carolina state epidemiologist,
about not speaking out more forcefully about the right
measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, according to
The Center Square. The report was based on internal email
correspondence obtained by The State newspaper. In one
email, Bell wrote “I will not ‘stand next to the governor’
anymore without speaking to what the science tells us is
the right thing to do, particularly as his staff intend to
portray that as my complicity with his position.” (See
story in this issue)
Resigned:Eileen White, city of Fishers Health Department
epidemiologist, because of perceived political
interference by the mayor in the decision-making of the
health department around coronavirus. “This is a level of
interference I had never seen before in a public health
agency,” White told the Indianapolis Star. (See story in
this issue).
Sidelined:Sarah Park, Hawaii state epidemiologist, reportedly
for not having implemented a state plan to hire a large
number of contact tracers to be on hand in case of an
upsurge in coronavirus cases. The management of these
tracers has been handed over to other Health Department
officials but Park will remain to conduct other
activities. (See story in this issue)
Honored: Zhong
Nanshan,
Chinese epidemiologist, with the Medal of the Republic. He
was the only recipient of this highest award this year.
“He bravely treated
[patients] and bravely spoke out, raising human-to-human
transmission [to the public], and emphasized strict
prevention and control measures,” read the nomination for
Zhong, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Newsmaker:Harvey Risch, Yale epidemiologist, for his views on
the use of hydroxychloroquine in combination with the
antibiotic azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19.
According to Yale News, more than 20 Yale colleagues
expressed their concerns in a letter stating “As his
colleagues, we defend the right of Dr Risch, a respected
cancer epidemiologist, to voice his opinions…But he is not
an expert in infectious disease epidemiology and he has
not been swayed by the body of scientific evidence from
rigorously conducted clinical trials, which refute the
plausibility of his arguments.” Yale News reports Dr Risch
did not respond to requests for comments.
Profiled:Marie-Roseline Belizaire, a World Health
Organization epidemiologist assigned to the Central
African Republic (CAR) to set up the organization’s
COVID-19 response. She worked previously to slow the
spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
and is seeking to apply lessons learned from DRC to the
CAR. Among them was this one from working with the
community. “I sat down and ate with them. If you eat with
them, they will trust you.”
Appointed:
Erica Pan,
as California’s new state epidemiologist. Dr. Pan had been
Alameda County’s health officer since July 2018. She was
director of the division of communicable disease control
and prevention and deputy health officer for the Alameda
County Public Health Department since 2011.The state
public health officer, Sonia Angell, told the local
media that extensive experience in public health,
infectious diseases and emergency response is exactly what
California needs right now in our continued response (to)
the COVID-19 pandemic. Pan was trained as a pediatric
infectious disease specialist and will be a co-leader of
California’s response to the coronavirus.
Interviewed:
Ali Khan,
epidemiologist and dean of the College of Public Health at
the University of Nebraska Medical Center by Democracy
Now! Khan was also former director of the Office of Public
Health Preparedness and Response at the CDC. He told
interviewer Amy Goodman “So, this, without a doubt
is the greatest public health failure in our nation’s
history, and it just continues to be in freefall.” He
called for integrated, whole-of-government leadership,
contact tracing and isolation, mask wearing, hand washing,
social distancing, and effective treatment of hospitalized
patients.
Interviewed:Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist and now CEO of
Pandefense Advisory by WIRED magazine. Speaking of the
pandemic, Brilliant was asked “how do we get out of this
mess?” He called for finding a way to deal with clusters
in nursing homes and other special populations, testing,
contact tracing and isolation, and keeping bars, indoor
restaurants, churches and other potentially super-spreader
places closed.
Profiled:
Ajay Sethi,
Associate Professor of Population Sciences at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison by the Wisconsin State
Journal. Sethi gives a course on “Conspiracies in Public
Health” to teach that we are all capable of conspiracy
thinking and to impart skills on how to converse with
persons holding different views. When asked to identify
the most troubling conspiracies regarding COVID-19 he
singled out accounts that public health workers and
hospital staff in Florida and Georgia have been asked to
manipulate or underreport data on COVID cases.
Appointed:Caitlin Pedati, Iowa state epidemiologist, to
President Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Pedati, a 34 year old pediatrician by training, has become
a very public figure during the pandemic. She recently
visited President Trump in the Oval Office with Iowa
Governor Kim Reynolds and was asked to join the Task Force
after that meeting, according to press accounts.
Profiled:Chen Chien-jen, Vice President of Taiwan,
epidemiologist, and expert on viruses in the New York
Times on May 9, 2020. Calling him Taiwan’s weapon against
coronaviruses, he navigates both the world of politics and
science. He told the Times, “Evidence is more important
than playing politics.” Because of his experience with
SARS in 2003, he helped prepare Taiwan for the next
outbreak. So far, in a population of almost 24 million
people next to China, Taiwan has recorded only 441 cases
and 7 deaths.
Volunteer:Sanjiv Baxi, with a New York City hospital to help
treat COVID-19 patients. Baxi is an infectious disease
physician, and adjunct professor who teaches epidemiology
at University of California, San Francisco. He is a member
of the Air Force Reserve and volunteered to help New York
meet the surge of patients. He told a military
publication, “One can read about how bad it is and see the
numbers, but witnessing the amount of suffering is a
different experience.”
Profiled: Linda Bell,
South Carolina state epidemiologist, by the Greenville
News. Bell, a physician and a former CDC EIS officer, has
served as state epidemiologist for about 8 years. Her role
during the coronavirus pandemic is said to be on a much
bigger stage with a much bigger audience. According to the
paper, she’s answered hundreds of questions, punctuated
with a signature style that is both polite and direct.”
Resigned:Neil Ferguson, UK epidemiologist, from his
country’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
Ferguson helped create a model of the coronavirus pandemic
which influenced both the UK and the US to take drastic
social distancing measures to save lives. According to
media accounts, he resigned because he violated social
distancing rules he helped bring about by allowing a
reported lover to visit his home.
Died: Sefik
Pasagic,
epidemiologist in Bosnia-Herzegovina, age 60, of COVID-19
complications. He was a former World Health Organization
liaison in Sarajevo, according to the NY Times. The paper
reports his wife has written that his death was caused by
the poor health services in his country and a local
journalist agreed by saying ““All
over the world people stay home to protect their public
health care system, only we are staying home to protect
ourselves from ours.”
https://nyti.ms/2ROWeeD
[Editor’s
Note:
Medscape has been keeping In Memoriam: a list of
healthcare workers who have died of COVID-19. In addition
to Sefik Pasagic above, it includes the following
epidemiogists. Readers who know of other colleagues
affected by COVID-19 are asked to send the information to
editor@epimonitor.net]
Luigi
Ablondi,
66, Epidemiologist, Former General Manager of the Crema
Hospital, Cremona, Italy
https://bit.ly/2xxJPoC
Nasrim
Kodin,
72, Professor of Epidemiology, Depok West Java Indonesia
https://bit.ly/3crgr1W
Bambang Sutrisna,
71, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Indonesia,
Jakarta Indonesia
https://bit.ly/2Vilpbt
Appointed:Pauline Mendola, as chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the School of
Public Health and Health Professions located at University
at Buffalo. Jean Wactawski-Wende, dean of the
school, said about Dr Mendola, “Her dedication, hard work,
and impeccable scholarship have led to remarkable success.
Her body of work fits perfectly into our mission and adds
to the department’s research portfolio in several areas,
including maternal and child health.”
Interviewed:
Deborah Morton,
California State University San Marcos chronic disease
epidemiologist for her views on the pandemic. She told the
interviewer “Many epidemiologists are being consulted and
living in the spotlight as experts for how to proceed and
predict the future of the pandemic. A highly unusual and
historic situation.”
Recovered:W Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor, Epidemiology at
Columbia University and Director of the
the Center for Infection and Immunity. He
had traveled to China to assist with the SARS-CoV-2
outbreak. Lipkin told CNBC in late March it was after his
self-quarantine was over that he became ill, developing
symptoms that include a “terrible headache” and a
“persistent cough that I still have to this day…It takes
your breath away…It’s 12 days into this illness for me and
my voice is abnormal. I’m still coughing and I don’t have
the usual energy level. But I did not require
hospitalization, and I’m grateful for that.”
Interviewed:
Wendy M. Bamberg,
on COVID-19 lessons and challenges by Contagion Live. Dr
Bamberg is principal and medical epidemiologist with
Medical Epidemiology Consulting. She provided a useful
description of the phases of the current outbreak and how
strategies need to adapt. She used an analogy to clarify
the difference between mitigation and containment
strategies. She said, “For football fans, this might be
analogous to zone defense instead of man-to-man.”
Recovered:Michael Saag, age 64, an epidemiologist at the
University of Alabama at Birmingham, became ill with
COVID-19 in mid-March and recovered. He was interviewed on
National Public Radio, and he wrote very descriptively
about his experience in the Washington Post. He told NPR
“Everything broke loose. I ended up with fever, chills,
headache. By the time the morning arrived, I was better
and I could function and think clearly, but then cruelly
and relentlessly, the symptoms came back every single day
in the late afternoon. And it just repeated itself. It
felt a lot like "Groundhog Day." I didn't know if each
night I would deteriorate and have to go in the hospital
or whether I would survive the night. “
Died:Raoult Ratard, Louisiana state epidemiologist at
age 75 of causes unrelated to COVID-19, although he was
fighting but not leading Louisiana’s outbreak as the state
epidemiologist, according to a Louisiana State Health
Department spokesman. The Department said “Dr Ratard was a
force withing the Department of Health and our whole
region. He trained future generations of epidemiologists
and set Louisiana on the path forward to respond to public
health outbreaks.”
https://bit.ly/3cuNPoG
Honored:
Zhong Nanshan, epidemiologist and head of the
Chinese National Health Commission’s expert panel
investigating COVID-19, as the inaugural winner of the
2020 Being Edinburgh Award. The award highlights positive
news about members of the Edinburgh alumni community.
No
More Guesses About Epidemiologists Being Skin Doctors
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented
attention to epidemiologists and their work. All of a sudden
the world knows who epidemiologists are and what they do.
Whether on television, newspapers, or social media,
epidemiologists are being interviewed constantly to get their
opinions about various characteristics of the SARS CoV-2 virus
causing the pandemic and potential control measures. Old
acquaintances that have fallen out of touch are reconnecting
with their epidemiologist friends or former neighbors to “get
their take” on the pandemic. One benefit of all this
attention--No more guesses about epidemiologists being skin
doctors.
The
Epidemiology Monitor has collected a sample of these news
items involving epidemiologists to give readers a sample of
the more visible public role being played by epidemiologists
everywhere.
Interviewed
in the New Yorker:Justin Lessler, associate professor of epidemiology
at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Topics covered are the ways in which our understanding of
the pandemic has improved, what we can learn from
different governments’ responses, and why older adults
seem to be more at risk of serious illness. “I would
definitely say that what China has been able to accomplish
has been quite impressive,” said Lessler.
LINK:
http://bit.ly/2J1wXco
Quoted
in PC Gamer:
Eric Lofgren (Washington State University) and
Nina Fefferman (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) on
the lessons learned from the “Corrupted Blood” outbreak in
the game World of Warcraft. Both epidemiologists have
written a paper on this topic published in Lancet
Infectious Diseases in 2007 and are now working on
coronavirus. "For me, it was a good illustration of how
important it is to understand people's behaviors," Lofgren
says. "When people react to public health emergencies, how
those reactions really shape the course of things. We
often view epidemics as these things that sort of happen to
people. There's a virus and it's doing things. But really
it's a virus that's spreading between people, and how
people interact and behave and comply with authority
figures, or don't, those are all very important things.
And also that these things are very chaotic. You can't
really predict 'oh yeah, everyone will quarantine. It'll
be fine.' No, they won't."
Fefferman’s perspective from her earlier
work is "It led me to think really deeply about how people
perceive threats and how differences in that perception
can change how they behave," she writes. "A lot of my work
since then has been in trying to build models of the
social construction of risk perception and I don't think I
would have come to that as easily if I hadn't spent time
thinking about the discussions WoW players had in real
time about Corrupted Blood and how to act in the game
based on the understanding they built from those
discussions."
LINK:
http://bit.ly/2Uoeqfp
Interviewed:Nigel Paneth, Michigan State University
epidemiologist, in East Lansing
Info, a non-profit
citizen-run local news cooperative, about coronavirus.
Asked if current responses to the pandemic are hysteria
and overreaction, Paneth said the risk of COVID-19 cannot
be overblown, stating that he had never seen such a public
health threat in his life. He urged more social distancing
and added that proactive communities can implement
interventions that will spare them the worst outcomes of
this pandemic. In this sense, local communities are in
control of their level of success. LINK:
http://bit.ly/2U2c3A4
Point-Counterpoint:John Ioannidis Stanford professor of epidemiology
and statistics and Marc Lipsitch Harvard professor
of epidemiology recently showcased different perspectives
on the COVID-19 epidemic in opinion pieces published in
STAT.
Ioannidis’
article was entitled “A fiasco in the making? As the
coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions
without reliable data”. He raised concerns about decision
making without good information. Lipsitch quickly
contributed an opinion article whose title encapsulates
his view, namely “We know enough now to act decisively
against COVID-19. Social distancing is a good place to
start.” LINKS:
http://bit.ly/3a4dvHZ
http://bit.ly/3be7JDQ
Honored:Robert W Haley, with the inaugural Laurance Nickey
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Medical
Association, for his career-long dedication to public
health. Dr Haley is the Director of the Division of
Epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center in Dallas. He formerly worked for 10 years
in infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Running:Anna Kelles, a University of North Carolina trained
nutritional epidemiologist, for a seat in the New York
State General Assembly. Kelles has been a legislator in
Tompkins County NY since 2015. Prior to that, she
served as a public health educator, director of an
environmental non-profit, and a human rights activist.
Nominated: John Vena,
for the
Lenna Endowed Visiting Professorship at St Bonaventure
University by the School of Health Professions at St
Bonaventure. Vena will deliver academic and public
lectures during his visit March 9-19, 2020. Vena is
currently
professor and founding chair of the
Department of Public Health Sciences at the Medical
University of South Carolina.
Interviewed:Michael Mina, for a Facebook Live event
sponsored
by The
Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and
PRI’s “The
World.”
Mina and “The World” reporter Elana Gordon discussed the
latest updates about the coronavirus situation. Mina is
assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School.
Read the report in the Harvard Gazette at: http://bit.ly/38SQO93
Interviewed:Ian Lipkin, on National Public Radio and by
Scientific American about his recent visit to China to
help investigate the coronavirus outbreak. Lipkin is
professor of epidemiology at Columbia University.
Honored: Tabatha
Offut-Powell
as a Community Star by the National Organization of State
Offices of Rural Health. The award recognizes those making
an impact on rural health. Dr Offut-Powell created a My
Healthy Community data portal which contains a large
amount of Delaware health-related data organized by
geographic region. Offut-Powell is the Delaware state
epidemiologist and Chief of Epidemiology, Health Data and
Informatics. She told local media, “We see things
differently because of [data]…It makes us ask ourselves,
‘Do we need to address that? What can we do differently?”
Appointed:
Joel Kaufman,
as the new editor-in-chief of Environmental Health
Perspectives (EHP), the journal published by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National
Institutes of Health. Dr Kaufman is Professor of
Environmenal and Occupational Health Sciences, Medicine,
and Epidemiology at the University of Washington, Seattle.
In an EHP news release, Kaufman shared his vision for the
journal, saying “EHP is, and should remain, the premier
international scholarly journal of the environmental
health sciences.”
Promoted:Tim Jones, as the chief medical officer for the
Tennessee Department of Health. Dr Jones has served as the
Tennessee state epidemiologist and director of the
Communicable, Environmental Disease and Emergency
Preparedness Division since 2007 and as assistant
commissioner in 2012. According to the Department, Dr
Jones is an internationally recognized expert in
epidemiology and communicable and foodborne diseases.
Awarded:
to Emeka Okafor, a five year Mentored Research
Scientist Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
to study the effects of drug use, particularly cannabis,
on treatment outcomes of patients with HIV. Okafor is
assistant professor of epidemiology in public health at
Baylor University.
Elected: Charles
Branas,
PhD, Professor of Epidemiology and Chair of the Department
of Epidemiology at Columbia University to the National
Academy of Medicine. According to the Academy, Dr Branas’
election recognizes an individual who has demonstrated
outstanding professional achievement and commitment to
service. The Academy cites his pioneering novel geographic
science and place-based design to solve critical issues
like gun violence, and showing that removing urban blight
reduces gun violence and improves mental health.
Appointed: Traci
Green,
as professor and director of the Opioid Policy Research
Collaborative at Brandeis University effective January 1,
2020. Green was formerly associate professor of emergency
medicine and deputy director of the Boston Medical Center
Injury Prevention Center. According to the University,
Green has extensive experience as a faculty member and
epidemiologist focusing on the areas of drug use,
addiction, and overdose prevention.
Appointed:Aisha Dickerson, PhD, as assistant professor and
Bloomberg Professor of American Health in Environmental
Challenges at the Hopkins School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology as of July 15. Dickerson was
formerly on a postdoctoral fellowship in the departments
of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the Harvard
Chan School of Public Health.
Honored:Cari Kitahara, PhD, with the Van Meter Award
Lecture by the American Thyroid Association at their
annual meeting in Chicago. Dr Kitahara is an investigator
in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics,
Radiation Epidemiology Branch, at the NIH’s National
Cancer Institute. The award is for an investigator younger
than 45 years who has made outstanding contributions to
thyroid research. Dr Kitahara is credited with elucidating
the role of obesity in the rising incidence of thyroid
cancer.
Established:Allison Milner
Early Career Research Fellowship by the University of
Melbourne to honor the legacy of a former 36 year old
social epidemiologist and the deputy head of the
disability and health unit at the Centre for Health Equity
at the University of Melbourne. Dr Millner died
accidentally earlier this year when she was hit by a
falling tree.
The fellowship will allow a talented early career
researcher to develop a program of research to reduce
inequities, in line with Professor Milner's values and
interests.
Died:
John Last,
age 92 on September 11 2019. He was professor of
epidemiology and community medicine at the University of
Ottawa beginning in 1969 and Emeritus Professor at the
time of his death. He worked in multiple areas of public
health and was perhaps best known in epidemiology for his
work as the editor of the first four editions of The
Dictionary of Epidemiology. He also edited four editions
of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and a leader in
the development of ethical standards for epidemiology and
public health. We always found him to be a cheerful,
knowledgeable, and interesting colleague to talk with over
the years at multiple epidemiology conferences.
Winner:
Thomas Peterman,
of the Epidemiology Monitor’s Ten Commandments contest
last month. Peterman told the Monitor he works mostly on
public health but tries to include some epidemiology
whenever possible. Asked about his winning entry, Peterman
said “The contest got me thinking about the essence of
epidemiology—how epidemiologists hope to work, and what
their values are. Plus, it was fun! Peterman generously
donated his $500 prize to help support the mission of the
Epidemiology Monitor.
Still Learning:Adrienne Lebailly, at the Epidemiology for Public
Health class at Colorado State University. Dr Lebailly
served as the Larimer County Public Health Director for 31
years and recently retired from that position. She is
participating in the Life Long Learner program at Colorado
State University free of charge for those over 55 years of
age. She chose epidemiology as her first class after
meeting the instructor and said “I figured that there were
certainly new things to learn since I took my last
epidemiology class in 1982.”
Spotlighted:Ross Brownson, by the Journal of Public Health
Management and Practice. He is
the Bernard Becker Professor of Public
Health at both the George Warren Brown School of Social
Work and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
He has been a member of the journal’s editorial board
since 2007. Brownson has had a long standing interest in
achieving greater use of data for public health practice
and policy. In a recent paper in the journal on
Disseminating Public Health Science published last year he
quoted Goethe “Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Appointed:Melissa Bondy, as chair of the Department of
Epidemiology and Population Health at the Stanford Cancer
Institute as of October 1, 2019. Bondy will also serve as
the associate director for population sciences at
Stanford. Bondy has been at the Baylor College of Medicine
for two decades prior to taking this new appointment. The
School of Medicine’s Dean Lloyd Minor said “Dr Bondy is a
renowed cancer epidemiologist whose leadership will
elevate Stanford Medicine’s multidisciplinary efforts to
improve the health of individuals and populations…We’re
thrilled that she has joined our faculty. Her career has
exemplified the core tenets of precision health.”
Honored:Caitlin Cossaboom, with the James H Steele
Veterinary Public Health Award given by the CDC for her
global and domestic work to prevent and control zoonotic
disease, more specifically her work as an Epidemic
Intelligence Service Officer to prevent anthrax and
brucellosis in people and animals. Dr Cossaboom works for
CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology
in its Viral Special Pathogens Branch.
Fired:Andrea Lombard, an epidemiologist from the
Connecticut Department of Public Health for her role in
hiring her daughter last year to a temporary summer job
under her direct supervision. Lombard was working in the
Department’s Hepatitis C program. Her supervisor was
suspended for 60 days. According to media reports, history
shows that state employees often win relief through the
appeal process.
No photo
available
Elected:Steven Jacobsen, as President-elect of the American
College of Epidemiology to assume the presidency in 2021.
Jacobsen is the senior director of Research for Kaiser
Permanente Southern California. Jacobsen told Pasadena Now
“As epidemiologists we can make a difference in people’s
lives. That is what fuels my passion for the field. That
is the passion I will share with ACE.”
Honored:Marion Kainer, with the 2019 National Pumphandle
Award from the Council of State and Territorial
Epidemiologists. The award is given to an epidemiologist
who has made extraordinary contributions to and
outstanding achievements in the field of applied
epidemiology. Dr Kainer is director of the Healthcare
Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program
at the Tennessee Department of Health. She was a key
member of the team which helped to stop the meningitis
outbreak linked to a fungal infection caused by steroid
injections from a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy in
September 2012. This public health action helped save
lives.
https://bit.ly/2TeDPHI
Honored:Jill Norris, with the Noel Weiss and Tom Koepsell
Excellence in Education Award from the Society for
Epidemiologic Research. Norris is Professor and Chair of
the Department of Epidemiology in the Colorado School of
Public Health at the University of Colorado. She has
mentored numerous students over the years and has been
honored by the University for her mentoring contributions.
Honored: Allison
Aiello,
with the Carol J Rowland Hogue Mid-Career Award from the
Society for Epidemiologic Research. Dr Aiello is Professor
of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina
Gillings School of Global Public Health and Adjunct
Professor of Social Medicine at University of North
Carolina School of Medicine. She leads the Social
Epidemiology Program in the department of Epidemiology,
Directs the Integrating Special Populations Program of the
North Carolina Translation and Clinical Sciences
Institute, and Co-Directs the Interdisciplinary Training
in Life Course Research Program at the Carolina Population
Center.
Honored:
Matthieu Domenech de Cellès,
with the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize Paper Award. Dr
Domenech de Cellès is a
post-doctoral fellow in the Biostatistics, Biomathematics,
Pharmacoepi and Infectious Diseases unit at the Institut
Pasteur in Paris. He works in the field of infectious
disease epidemiology, and his research interests include
bacterial resistance to antibiotics, vaccine epidemiology,
and infectious disease seasonality.
Honored:Brittany Blouin, with the Tyroler Student Prize
Paper Award. Dr Blouin completed her PhD in Epidemiology
in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and
Occupational Health at McGill University in November
2018. Her research focuses on global health and
epidemiologic methods with particular interest in
infectious and parasitic diseases, child health and
nutrition, and field research. She is currently a
consultant on a joint project between UNAIDS and McGill
University and a Senior Advisor for the WHO Collaborating
Centre for Research and Training in Parasite Epidemiology
and Control.
Killed: Allison
Milner, 36 years old, by a falling tree in a freak
accident in Melbourne, Australia. Milner was a social
epidemiologist who led Australia's largest study on
suicide by doctors. She was an Associate Professor at the
University of Melbourne. Colleagues remembered her as "a
leader in the field, a brilliant researcher, a generous
colleague, and a loving mum."
https://ab.co/2OTXzSq
Newsmaker:
Þórólfur Guðnason,
chief epidemiologist in Iceland, garnered headlines this
month for his proposal to distribute condoms in primary
schools.
The country’s high incidence of
syphilis—the highest per capita in Europe— as well as a
high incidence of chlamydia have prompted the proposal.
“There are a lot of people against this idea, many
parents,” he told reporters. “But we need to have a
thorough discussion about this and to do everything we can
to stop the spread of these diseases, which can turn very
serious.” Primary schools in Iceland typically have
students who are as old as 15 years.
Profiled:Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an
epidemiologist from Haiti, is helping to coordinate the
World Health Organization’s Ebola response in Katwa, a
town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu
province. “It is very intense, but I am totally devoted to
serving the people,” she says, adding “even if you are
down, you cannot be down because when you are a leader,
you need to be strong.
“If I am
not strong, they will say this job is not for women."
Appointed:
Stephanie Shiau,
PhD, as Instructor in the department of biostatistics and
epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Rutgers dean Perry N. Halkitis said “The Rutgers
School of Public Health is proud to welcome Dr. Shiau to
our ranks…Dr. Shiau is a rigorous epidemiologist who
focuses on designing and implementing clinical trials and
observational research studies to improve the health of
populations living with and affected by HIV locally and
globally. Shiau joins the Rutgers School of Public Health
from the G.H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University
Medical Center, where she is currently a postdoctoral
research scientist.
Featured & Interviewed:
Meru Sheel, by Women’s Agenda in a feature designed
to introduce women and their work. Dr Sheel is an
infectious disease epidemiologist at the Australian
National University Research School of Population Health.
She told the interviewer that her passion lies in
improving health outcomes for marginalized populations
amid a rapidly changing global health landscape. She added
that the most rewarding part of her job is being out in
the field responding to infectious disease outbreaks and
emergencies.
Died:August Hale Vandermer, from hepatic failure earlier
this year in Prince Frederick Maryland. He was a senior
epidemiologist during his career with the US Environmental
Protection Agency and had served as EPA’s representative
to the United Nations Environmental Program.
Honored:Aniekeme Uwah, with a medal of honor from the
African Union for his role in the Ebola control efforts in
Liberia in the outbreak five years ago. Dr Uwah told the
Premium Times publication that “the medal
of honor means so much to me. I value it so much because
coming four years after I left Liberia, it goes to show
that my contribution to the containment of Ebola has been
appreciated.” He was initially scared of going to Liberia
but later asked himself who else would go to Liberia to do
the job if he as a trained medical personnel refused to.
Honored:Allen Wilcox, with Emeritus Investigator status by
the National Institute of Environmental Health Science for
his discoveries in fertility and pregnancy. The new
position will allow him to focus exclusively on research
at NIEHS according to the agency newsletter.
Died:
Sarah Luna,
age 31, in a plane crash in Metlakatla Harbor Alaska. She
was a senior epidemiologist in the Liver Disease and
Hepatitis Program of the Alaska Native Tribal Health
Consortium and was traveling to the area in partnership
with the Diabetes team. The Consortium described her as a
person truly committed to the health and well-being of
Alaska Native people.
Honored:
Frank Tanser,
with the Royal Geographical Society Back Award for
pioneering the use of geographical information systems in
the field of HIV epidemiology. Tanser is a research
professor and senior faculty member of the Africa Health
Research Institute (AHRI) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Tanser is credited by a colleague with making an amazing
contribution to impoverished communities burdened with the
HIV epidemic.
Honored:Nilka Rios Burrows, with the Public Service Award
from the National Kidney Foundation. The award is for
“someone who has dedicated their career to public service
and has helped shape public policies or government
programs that improve outcomes for kidney patients.”
Burrows is an epidemiologist in the division of diabetes
translation at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Sentenced:Tom Frieden, former CDC Director, to a conditional
discharge after pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct
violation. He was arrested last year following a groping
allegation and faced charges for misdemeanor forcible
touching and other sexual abuse and harassment charges
possibly leading to jail time. According to the AP, the
lesser disorderly conduct violation is not a crime, and
the discharge will be dismissed and sealed in a year if
Frieden does not get arrested in that time frame.
Recognized:Beth Milius, as an "Unsung Hero" of state and local
foodborne illness responses by the Washington State
Food/Feed Rapid Response Team, a multi-agency team that
utilizes the Incident Command System and standardized
procedures to quickly and efficiently respond to human and
animal food incidents affecting Washington State. "She
brings a calm, rational approach to the response while
still keeping public health as the number one priority",
said Randy Treadwell manager of the Rapid Response Team.
"She's a true champion for public health in Washington",
added Treadwell.
A recent food safety magazine article featured unsung
heroes among state and local public health officials who
are innovating in conducting outbreak investigations
without mentioning any of them by name. The Epidemiology
Monitor requested further details and received this
information about Beth Melius, who is a Foodborne and
Enteric Disease epidemiologist in the Office of
Communicable Disease Epidemiology in Washington. Readers
are invited to send us information about other unsung
heroes of epidemiology who are making important but
unrecognized contributions to epidemiology and public
health.
Honored:Linda B. Cottler with 2019 Mentorship Award from
the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. She will be
recognized at the organization’s 81st Annual Meeting in
San Antonio in June. Cottler is a dean’s professor of
epidemiology in the University of Florida College of
Public Health and Health Professions (PHHP) and the
College of Medicine, and PHHP’s associate dean for
research. She has mentored more than 100 people at the
undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and early career
levels.
Honored:George Davey Smith with life membership in The
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for his
scientific and academic achievements in epidemiology.
Davey Smith is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and
Director of the Medical Research Council Integrative
Epidemiology Unit at Bristol Medical School: Population
Health Sciences. He said “Working in the field I do is a
team effort, involving many people who have skills I don’t
possess, and our work receiving recognition is a
reflection of the fantastic environment for population
health sciences that Bristol provides.”
Appointed:Michael LaMonte, to the Subcommittee on Physical
Activity of the American Heart Association’s Council on
Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. LaMonte is Research
Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and
Environmental Health at the Unversity of Buffalo.
Honored:Sandro Galea with the 2019 Distinguished Service
Award to be presented in June by the Society for
Epidemiologic Research. The award is given by the
leadership of SER for multiple years of outstanding
contributions to the organization. Galea is Dean and
Robert A Knox Professor at the Boston University School of
Public Health.
Honored:Sherman James, with the Kenneth Rothman Career
Accomplishment Award to be presented in June by the
Society for Epidemiologic Research. As stated, the award
is given for extraordinary contributions to the field of
epidemiology, or for work that has had a profound impact
on epidemiology and shifted the way epidemiology is
practiced. Dr James is Adjunct Professor at the Rollins
School of Public Health at Emory University.
Honored: Lauren
McCullough
. The award recognizes early career epidemiologists who
have already made substantial contributions to the field
and are poised to become future leaders in epidemiology.
Dr. McCullough is an Assistant Professor at the Rollins
School of Public Health at Emory University.
Died: Gina
Pugliese, age 70, on March 4, 2019 of complications
from uterine cancer. Gina was an expert on infection
control and hospital epidemiology. Minnesota
epidemiologist Michael Osterholm described her as a
pioneer in the field and told the Chicago Tribune that
“Gina was one of the most respected colleagues in our
business—she was never wrong because of doing her homework
to always know the facts.” She most recently served as
Vice President of the Safety Institute at Premier
Healthcare Alliance.
Interviewed:Gregg Gonsalves, Yale epidemiologist and MacArthur
Foundation grantee (“genius award”) by the New York Times
in early April. Gonsalves explained why he became an
epidemiologist, how he combines activism with quantitative
research, and what it was like to attend University as a
44 year old. To read the interview, visit :
https://nyti.ms/2uV3fi9
Honored:Thomas A Pearson, with the 2019 Epidemiology and
Prevention Mentoring Award given by the Council on
Epidemiology and Prevention at the American Heart
Association. Pearson is a professor in the Department of
Epidemiology at the University of Florida College of
Public Health and Health Professions and the College of
Medicine and director of the MD-PHD program.
Newsmaker:Kimberly Repp, Washington County Oregon
epidemiologist is in the news again for her work in
identifying risk factors for suicide. This latest media
account describes the value of focusing on evictions in
identifying high risk persons. (See The Epidemiology
Monitor, November 2018). According to streetroots.org
which reported the story, Repp gets calls from time to
time from persons calling to thank her to say they are
alive due to her efforts. Says Repp “It’s happened
multiple times. It’s hard to get a positive response to
public health work during your lifetime. It’s profound.”
Died: Paul
Godley,
61, of a heart attack, on March 31, 2019 while recovering
from a previous heart attack. Godley was adjunct professor
of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Public Health.
Til Sturmer, chair of the department, called
Godley “ a major force in medicine and epidemiology whose
work made a significant difference in oncology
(specifically prostate cancer) and in reducing health
disparities”.
Honored:Hui Hu, with the 2019 Sandra A Daugherty Award for
Excellence in Cardiovascular Disease or Hypertension
Epidemiology given by the Council on Epidemiology and
Prevention at the American Heart Association. Hu is
assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at
the University of Florida College of Public Health and
Health Professions. The award recognizes junior faculty
and seeks to stimulate excellence in research.
Honored:George Luber, CDC epidemiologist, with the Hugh
Hefner First Amendment Award to be given on May 15, 2019
at the Newseum in Washington DC. According to the
Foundation, Luber was the former chief of the Climate and
Health Program at CDC. After the 2016 election, he was
directed to cancel a conference on climate change with Al
Gore and he refused and was outspoken on the issue. He was
sent home on administrative leave, and according to recent
Atlanta Journal Constitution report, is in forced exile
and a persona non grata at CDC headquarters.
Died:Alan Kristal, 66, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center epidemiologist of pancreatic cancer on March 22,
2019. He studied how diet can lower cancer risk. His
colleagues paint a vivid picture of him—“he will be
especially remembered for being an iconoclast, for having
a wicked sense of humor, and for his authenticity,” and
“the excellence of Alan Kristal’s science is no
accident…It is the result of high intention, sincere
effort, and intelligent execution. What a beautiful
legacy.”.
Killed:Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiology
colleague deployed by the World Health Organization in
response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. A citizen of Cameroon, Dr Mouzoko was killed
in an attack on Butembo University Hospital on April 19,
2019 while he was participating in a coordination meeting.
The WHO Regional Office Director called the incident
tragic and unacceptable. The WHO regional office stated it
was deeply saddened by the loss of Dr Mouzoko.
Elected:Christine Friedenreich, as chair of the
International Agency for Research on Cancer’s scientific
council. Dr Friedenreich is in the University of Alberta’s
Department of Oncology in the Cumming School of Medicine.
She is also the scientific director of Cancer Epidemiology
and Prevention Research at Cancer Control Alberta.
According to Friedenreich, “it’s the most important center
for cancer research and cancer prevention anywhere in the
world, and I am very honored by this appointment. It’s a
huge opportunity.”
Profiled: John Last,
age 93, by the Canadian Broadcasting Company asking
elderly persons about their pearls of wisdom over the
decades. Last, who is living in an elderly care home, says
his most important lesson is to make the best of every
opportunity. He’s writing a children’s book about the
continuing adventures of a parrot and a pair of twins, a
book inspired by a memory written in his late wife’s
diaries. Last is emeritus professor at the University of
Ottawa and original editor of the Dictionary of
Epidemiology and other reference texts.
Joined: Henry
Raymond,
the New Jersey End AIDS Epidemic Committee. Dr Raymond is
associate professor of epidemiology at the Rutgers School
of Public Health. The committee was initiated by the New
Jersey Governor. Said Raymond,
"Rutgers
School of Public Health is honored to participate in the
New Jersey HIV Elimination Initiative announced by
Governor Murphy last World AIDS Day… Our expertise in HIV
epidemiology will provide a data-based approach to
priorities and programs needed to end new HIV infections
in the State."
Died:Bill Jenkins, on Feb. 17 in Charleston, S.C. He was
73. The cause of death was sarcoidosis . Bill was a
former CDC epidemiologist who worked to address racism in
health care and had been a champion for the participants
in the Tuskegee study.
As one acquaintance paid tribute, “…his
whole life spoke powerfully for racial justice and healing
especially in public health, past and future, and the role
we all can play in making that a reality—not by denial but
by acknowledgement, however painful, and active repair.
Oh, I miss that laugh. . .”
Died:Melinda Moore, on January 17, 2019 of ovarian
cancer at age 68 at her home in Darnestown, Maryland. She
was a former Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and had a
career in global health in over 45 countries while
employed by CDC, at the Department of Health and Human
Services, and at RAND. Her obituary in the Washington Post
states “she will be remembered for her adventurous spirit,
moral and intellectual leadership, and eternal optimism.”
Running:
Nima Machouf,
as a member of the federal New Democrats Party (NDP) for a
seat as Member of Parliament (MP) in Laurier-Sainte-Marie,
an electoral district in downtown Montreal. Machouf works
as an epidemiologist at L’Actuel, a medical clinic
offering high-quality healthcare in the diagnosis and
treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and
management of people living with HIV/AIDS. She is running
as a progressive.
Awardee:Denise St. Jean, with a Health Policy Research
Scholar Fellowship from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, one of 40 awarded annually to doctoral
students in the US
who want to apply research in their field
to influence policy related to population health, health
equity and advancing a “Culture of Health.”
St.Jean is a student
in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina’s
Gillings School of Global Public Health.
The award provides $120,000 in financial
support over a four-year period.
Selected:Jamy Ard, to serve on the advisory committee
to review scientific evidence to help inform USDA and HHS
development of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. Ard is Professor, Epidemiology and Prevention
at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Selected:Lydia Bazzano,
to serve on the advisory committee
to review scientific evidence to help inform USDA and HHS
development of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. Bazzano is a professor at Tulane and head of
the Bogalusa Heart Study.
Selected:Joan Sabate,
to serve on the advisory committee
to review scientific evidence to help inform USDA and HHS
development of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. Sabate is Professor of Nutrition and
Epidemiology at Loma Linda University School of Public
Health.
Selected:Carol Boushey,
to serve on the advisory committee
to review scientific evidence to help inform USDA and HHS
development of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. Boushey is associate professor at the
University of Hawaii Cancer Center.
Selected:Rachel Novotny,
to serve on the advisory committee
to review scientific evidence to help inform USDA and HHS
development of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. Novotny is a nutritional epidemiologist at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Promoted: E Oscar
Alleyne,
to Chief of Programs and Services at the National
Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
In making the appointment, NACCHO Chief Executive Officer
Lori Tremmel Freeman said “Dr Alleyne is an
epidemiologist by training and he brings years of local
health department experience responding to health issues
including West Nile, H1N1, Ebola and other emerging health
care issues as well as his time here at NACCHO as an
association executive advocating for local health
department members around the country.”
Profiled: Nita
Gandhi Forouhi,
professor at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology
Unit. Farouhi is a nutrition researcher who said “…it was
during my four year Wellcome Fellowship in clinical
epidemiology that my love for looking at populations
really took shape…Research is a powerful tool to influence
human health, and I feel privileged to be able to impact
the prevention of disease.”
Honored:Svetla Slavova, by the editorial board of Injury
Epidemiology with the Jess Kraus Award for the best
paper published in 2018. Dr Slavova is an associate
professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the
University of Kentucky College of Public Health and a
faculty researcher at the Kentucky Injury Prevention and
Research Center. The award will be presented in March 2019
at a symposium at Columbia University.
Honored:Omesh Kumar Bharti, with the Padma Shri Award, the
fourth highest in India,
for his
“pathbreaking research to treat rabid dog bite patients.”
India reports 20,000 deaths every year due to rabies and
most of these are due to high costs and the unavailability
of rabies immunoglobulins. Bharti’s research cut the costs
of dog bite treatment from about $500 to $5 when during a
shortage he infiltrated immunoglobulins only into the
wound rather than intramuscularly with a much larger and
more expensive dose. Lab confirmed rabid dog bite victims
survived with this reduced dose without any adverse
impact. Bharti is currently a field epidemiologist at the
Institute of Health and Family Welfare in Shimla.
Died:Dionisio Herrera, on December 4, 2018. Dr Herrera
was the director of the Training Programs in Epidemiology
and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), a
global network of 71 field epidemiology
training programs with a presence in more than 100
countries. In paying tribute to him his colleagues noted
their “unspeakable sadness” that the global field
epidemiology community lost a visionary leader, a
nurturing mentor, fierce champion and generous friend.
Resigned:Kristy Bradley, as state epidemiologist in Oklahoma
since 2005. According to media reports, she was forced to
resign for reasons not revealed publicly. Last year
Bradley had questioned how federal monies were being spent
in the state. The health department says her forced
resignation had nothing to do with any previous events.
Appointed:Thomas Dobbs, as Mississippi state health officer.
Dr Dobbs was serving in the position on an interim basis
and is the former state epidemiologist in Mississippi. In
making the appointment, the chair of the state board of
health said the department is “privileged to have someone
of Dr Dobbs’ experience and caliber to lead our health
departments as we continue to face challenges and
changes.”
Awardee:Donald Burke, Dean of the University of Pittsburgh
Graduate School of Public Health, as recipient of the John
Snow Award from the American Public Health Association at
its annual meeting in San Diego. The award is given in
recognition of enduring contributions to public health
through epidemiologic methods and practice.
Named:Steffanie Strathdee, Associate Dean of Global
Health Sciences at the University of California San Diego,
as one of Time magazine’s 50 most influential people in
health care for 2018. The honor identifies people who have
changed the state of health care in America this year and
bear watching for what they do next.
In
2015, Strathdee, an infectious disease epidemiologist,
urged doctors at UC San Diego to use phage therapy as a
last resort to save her husband who was dying from a
multidrug resistant bacterial infection. Since then, five
patients at UC San Diego Health have been treated with
phages, including a patient this year with a years-long
chronic infection that was successfully cleared, allowing
him to undergo life-saving heart transplant surgery.
Died:Margaret Becklake, on Octorber 17 at age 96 in
Montreal. Her obituary notes she grew up in South Africa,
studied medicine in Johannesburg and after postgraduate
training in London, worked at the University of the
Witwatersrand and the Miners Silicosis Bureau where she
studied the effects of dust inhalation on workers in the
gold mines. In 1957 she immigrated with her family to
Montreal and worked at McGill University in the
Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology, the Montreal
Chest Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital. Her widely
published research brought her international recognition.
Died:Naomi Breslau, on October 23, 2018 in Pittsboro,
North Carolina age 86. She was emeritus professor of
epidemiology and biostatistics at Michigan State
University. She was one of the first scientists to study
how the experiences of everyday life can cause serious
psychiatric syndromes like PTSD.
Awardee:Aaron Blair, National Cancer Institute, as
recipient of the Wade Hampton Frost Lectureship Award from
APHA. It recognizes a person who has made a significant
contribution to addressing a public health issue of major
importance by applying epidemiologic methods.
Died:Wendy
Atkin, on October 2, 2018, at age 71. She was an
emeritus Professor of Gastroenterology at Imperial College
London. Colleagues describe her as an exceptional
scientist who made remarkable and lasting contributions to
the field of cancer screening and prevention. She led the
UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Trial (UPFSST), a large
randomised controlled trial of 170,000 men and women that
would ultimately and unequivocally demonstrate the benefit
of flexible sigmoidoscopy on colorectal cancer prevention.
Awardee: Marianne
Passannante,
Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for
Educational Program Development at the Rutgers School of
Public Health, as recipient of the Abraham Lilienfeld
award from the American Public Health Association which
recognizes excellence in teaching. In receiving her award,
Dr Passannante said, “As anyone who knows me knows, aside
from my family, teaching is my first love…What I love most
about teaching is to see the excitement in my students as
they learn a new concept that they can apply in their
work…It’s really wonderful to receive an award for
something that you love to do every day.”
Awardee: Gregg
Gonsalves,
Yale epidemiologist, with a MacArthur Foundation “Genius”
award worth $625,000 over five years with no strings
attached. The award is given to talented individuals who
have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in
their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for
self-direction. The Foundation described Gonsalves as an
epidemiologist and global health advocate integrating his
experiences as a community activist with quantitative
analysis and operations research to improve responses to
global public health challenges.
Honored:Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, with a SAMMIE, a Samuel
Heyman Service to America Medal for career achievement.
These awards in several categories
honor members of the
federal government workforce, highlighting the work of
employees making significant contributions to the
governance of the United States. The awards are
considered "the Oscars" of American government service.
Dr. Yeargin-Allsop is Associate Director for Children with
Special Health Care Needs at CDC in Atlanta. According to
Coleen Boyle, director of the CDC’s National Center
on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities,
“Marshalyn’s major accomplishment was really bringing
developmental disabilities into the mainstream of
epidemiology.”
Reappointed:Eduardo Franco, as Chair of the Gerald Bronfman
Department of Oncology in the Faculty of Medicine at
McGill University. Dr. Franco is James McGill Professor in
the Departments of Oncology and Epidemiology,
Biostatistics, and Occupational Health and Director of the
Division of Cancer Epidemiology.
Honored:Margaret Honein, with a SAMMIE, a Samuel Heyman
Service to America Medal in the science and environment
category. These awards in several categories
honor
members of the federal government workforce, highlighting
the work of employees making significant contributions to
the governance of the United States. The awards are
considered "the Oscars" of American government service.
Dr. Honein is Director of Congenital and Developmental
Disorders at CDC. According to Anne Schuchat, CDC’s
principal deputy director, Honein "brought extraordinary
scientific expertise, leadership, and management to an
unprecedented emergency response to the Zika virus.”
Appointed:Anne Rimoin, as the Director of the UCLA Center for
Global and Immigrant Health. Dr Rimoin has been the
associate director of the Center since 2014. She is
currently an associate professor of epidemiology at UCLA.
Honored:Victor Schoenback, with the Abraham Lilienfeld
award from the American College of Epidemiology. The award
recognizes a senior leader who has made extraordinary
contributions to the field of epidemiology over the course
of his or her career through teaching, mentoring,
research, and/or scholarship. Department chair Til
Sturmer stated “This is a well-deserved recognition of
Vic’s outstanding lifetime contributions to epidemiology.
The award is a great honor for Vic and the department.”
Honored:Michele Forman, with
the 2018 Special Award for Epidemiologic
Research on Critical and Sensitive Windows for Health
Across the Lifespan from the American College of
Epidemiology (ACE). Dr. Forman is distinguished professor
and head of the Department of Nutrition Science in the
College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University.
Appointed:Noah Kiwanuka, as the new chair of the Department
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Makerere University
School of Public Health in Kampala Uganda. Dr Kiwanuka is
a Senior Lecturer in the Department, with 17 years
experience in the design, conduct and analysis of
population-based cohort studies and clinical trials. He is
the Director of the Makerere University Clinical Trials
Unit (MakCTU) and conducts research in HIV prevention and
vaccines. He is a specialist in survival analysis and
longitudinal data analysis.
Interviewed:Cara Maesano, environmental epidemiologist in the
newsletter published by MyScienceWork, a website which
promotes easy access to scientific publications,
unrestricted diffusion of knowledge and open science. Dr
Maesano earned a PhD in particle physics at UC Davis and
is now a post-doc at Sorbonne University in environmental
epidemiology doing work on air pollution. According to
Maesano, “ I don’t want to give anyone the illusion that
it’s easy to change fileds between a PhD and a
post-doc…but it’s interesting to see science from a
different perspective.”
Appointed:Joseph Lewnard, as Assistant Professor of
Epidemiology at the Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr
Lewnard studies the transmission dynamics of infectious
disease agents and the effectiveness of interventions such
as vaccination. He completed a PhD at Yale and a
postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard.
Honored:William Schaffner,
as recipient of the 2018 D.A. Henderson Award for
Outstanding Contributions to Public Health given by the
Infectious Disease Society of America. According to IDSA,
Shaffner has advanced epidemiologic science, translated
that science into national health policy, and eloquently
communicated these developments and countless other
infectious disease-related topics to the public throughout
his career. Dr Schaffner is
currently
professor of preventive medicine in the Department of
Health Policy and a professor of medicine in the Division
of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University.
Profiled:
Charles Rotimi,
Director of the Trans NIH Center for Genomics and Global
Health at the NIH, as the “Genome Collector” in The
Scientist Magazine. The article describes Rotimi’s
interesting and improbable journey from humble beginnings
in Nigeria to a distinguished scientific career at NIH.
Studying genomes from around the world, Rotimi notes “…We
have these categories for people that we try to justify in
biological, cultural, and social ways, but in the end it
all breaks down, because one thing humans do very well is
to share their DNA.” And in another observation, “Using
genetics to define race is like slicing soup: you can cut
wherever you want, but the soup stays mixed.”
Appointed:Duncan Maru, as Associate Professor at The Arnhold
Institute for Global Health at Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai. According to a Mt Sinai press release, Dr
Maru is an epidemiologist and physician who conducts
research on strategies to health care interventions in
settings of extreme poverty. Dr Maru is co-founder of
Possible, a non-profit public-private partnership with
the Nepali government that develops and tests innovations
in integrated health care delivery systems and provides
hospital and home-based care to 150,000 patients each year
[https://possiblehealth.org/].
Prior to joining Mount Sinai, he served on
the faculties of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of
Global Health Equity, Boston Children’s Hospital Complex
Care Service, and Harvard Medical School’s Department of
Global Health and Social Medicine.
Awardee:Enrique Schisterman, as recipient of the 2018
American College of Epidemiology Outstanding Contributions
in Methods Development Award. This award is given to
recognize an epidemiologist for exemplary work in
theoretical or applied research methodology that has
demonstrably advanced the practice of epidemiology.
According to ACE, Dr. Schisterman’s development of novel
study designs and methods for causal inference and the
analysis of biomarker data is relevant for all
epidemiologic specialties, and demonstrates his creativity
and dedication in advancing epidemiologic practice. Dr.
Schisterman is currently Chief and Senior Investigator,
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population
Health Research, in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health & Human Development.
Awarded: to Harvey
Risch, the Ruth Leff Siegel Award for Excellence in
Pancreatic Cancer Research. The award carries a $50,000
prize. The international award is open to all types of
pancreatic cancer research and it is notable that Dr Risch
was recognized for his work as an epidemiologist. He is Professor
of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and
Public Health at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale
School of Medicine.
Hired:Anne Marie Jukic, PhD, by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, to lead the Fertility and
Reproductive Health Group as a researcher in the
Epidemiology Branch. Jukic was formerly assistant
professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
Profiled:Miriam Al-Fardous, for preparing to become the
first female to dive at both the North and South Poles.
Fardous, 33, is a physician, epidemiologist and graduate
of King Abdul Azis University. She was the first Arab
woman to dive at the North Pole and is preparing to dive
at the South Pole in February which could earn her the
title “first female two-poles diver”.
Awarded:
to Jo Freudenheim, a $359,024 grant from the New
York State governor’s “Get Screened, No Excuses”
initiative. Freudenheim was one of nine scientists
selected. She also was one of seven researchers receiving
a second grant to examine the role of the microbiome in
breast cancer. She is the Distinguished Professor and
Chair of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the
University of Buffalo.
Retired:
Kathleen McKeen,
77, Director of the Iowa Cancer Registry after 59 years of
service. “I like to refer to the registry people as
detectives,” McKeen told Iowa’s Gazette. She has
supervised a staff of 50 at the registry and has been very
dedicated to cancer surveillance, according to Charles
Lynch, University of Iowa professor and Principal
Investigator for the federal contract that funds most of
the Iowa registry.
Arrested: Tom
Frieden, fomer CDC Director, for groping a woman in his
apartment in 2017. He was charged with
forcible touching, sex
abuse and harassment. His attorney entered a not guilty
plea on his behalf. He was released without bail.
Newsmaker:Karin Michels, for her statements that
"coconut
oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can
eat." She made the comments during a lecture in Germany
which was translated and has gone viral with almost a
million views. The video appears to have been removed from
Youtube. Michels is professor and chair of epidemiology at
UCLA and an adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public
Health.
Retiring: Patricia
Quinlisk,
Iowa’s medical director and state epidemiologist, in
September 2018. She told the local paper “I’ve never
gotten bored in this job because every day there is
something new, something you have to sort of figure out
and some things you have to try things on and see if they
work, and if they don’t, then you switch gears and you try
something else.”
Honored:Jeff Band, with the Michigan Medicine Alumni
Distinguished Service Award to be given at a banquet in
October 2018. The award recognizes outstanding
contributions to the medical community and public health
by Michigan graduates. Dr Band was Corporate Director of
Health Care Epidemiology at Beaumont Health Systems.
Currently he is professor of medicine at Oakland
University William Beaumont School of Medicine and Wayne
State University School of Medicine.
Awarded:
to Claudia Langenberg, a Hemholz International
Fellow Award to be given in November 2018. Dr Langenberg
will receive 20,000 Euros in prize money and will be
invited to conduct research at the Hemholz Zentrum in
Munich. She currently is at the University of Cambridge
with the MRC Epidemiology Unit.
Died:Edson Albuquerque, at age 82. He was a University
of Maryland epidemiology and public health professor who
researched the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. According
to Jay Magaziner, chair of the Department of
Epidemiology at Maryland, “Edson was an outstanding
scientist and colleague who had tremendous wisdom and
worked tirelessly.” Another called him “truly an
international research star.”
Honored:Julie Buring, with the Distinguished Service to the
Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) award. Dr Buring
is currently Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical
School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor
of Epidemiology at Harvard TH Chan School of Public
Health.
Defeated: Eric Ding,
in a four-way Democratic primary race in the 10th
Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He obtained 18% of
the votes in a four way primary race in which the winner
won 36% of the vote. Ding
is an epidemiologist, nutritionist, and health economist
and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard Chan School of
Public Health, where he was a faculty member.
Honored:Stephen Cole, with the Excellence in Education
award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER).
Dr Cole is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the
Causal Inference Research Laboratory there.
Honored:Sonja Swanson with the Brian MacMahon Early Career
Award by the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Dr
Swanson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Epidemiology at Erasmus Medical Center and an Adjunct
Assistant Professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of
Public Health.
Appointed: Donna
Spiegelman,
asDirector of the Yale’s newly established
Center for Methods of Implementation and Prevention
Science effective July 1. Spiegelman was recently named
the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics at Yale
School of Public Health. She will work to promote the
development of methods to accelerate the speed and breadth
of adoption of research findings into public health
practice and develop and assess sustainable,
cost-effective interventions to improve public health
domestically and around the world.
Spiegelman joins Yale from the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health.
Running for Office: Abdul
El Sayed
as a Democratic candidate for governor in Michigan. El
Sayed is in a three candidate primary scheduled for August
7. He has served as a faculty member in the Departments of
Epidemiology at Michigan and Columbia and as the health
director in Detroit. According to Bloomberg news, El Sayed
is supporting a tax increase to pay for a statewide
government-run health-care system, going further than his
party’s candidates in other parts of the country who are
also calling for expanded coverage.
Honored: Allen
Wilcox with the Kenneth Rothman Career Accomplishment
award given by the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Dr.
Wilcox is a senior epidemiologist with the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Honored:Kara Rudolph with the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize
Paper award. Dr Randolph is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of
California, Davis.
Honored:Michael Harhay with the Tyroler Student Prize Paper
award given by the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Dr
Harhay is a trainee at the University of Pennsylvania
where he completed his PhD and MS in Statistics.
Testified:Lorelei Mucci and Beate Ritz at the Monsanto
trial about the Roundup pesticide. Mucci is a Harvard
epidemiologist who stated, according to press accounts,
that the body of evidence shows no positive association
between glyphosate and NHL. Ritz is a UCLA epidemiologyist
who reportedly refuted that there was no connection
between glyphosate and non Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL). The
judge allowed the complaints against Monsanto to move
forward.
Honored:Esra
Kürüm,
with the Rothman Epidemiology Prize by the journal
Epidemiology for the best paper of the year in 2017. The
paper used combined Bayesian model averaging with change
point models to estimate the vaccine-associated changes in
hospitalizations related to pneumococcal infection in
children. The prize amount is $5,000.
Dr. Kürüm is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Statistics at the University of California,
Riverside.
Appointed:Michael Osterholm, as a Science Envoy with the US
Department of State. The program selects prominent
scientists for 1 year appointments to build collaboration
on pressing issues. Osterholm’s focus during his
appointment will be on antibiotic resistance. He is
currently director of the Center for Infectious Disease
Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Elected:WayWay Hlaing, as a fellow of the American College
of Epidemiology. She currently is Associate Professor of
Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine at
the University of Miami.
Honored:Kaitlyn Gam, as a
recipient of the Tulane 34 Award, a university wide
student honor given to only 34 graduates per year. She was
honored for her work on the Gulf Long Term Follow Up Study
which examined the health effects of the 2010 Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Honored:Maureen Dubreil, with an early investigator award
from the Spondylitis Association of America. Dubreil is an
Assistant Professor of Clinical Epidemiology Research and
Training at the Boston University School of Medicine. Her
research focuses on comorbidities and pharmacoepidemiology
of spondyloarthritis.
Profiled:Yasmin Altwaijri, in AboutHer, a web publication
about Arab women. The headline for the profile
states “As
one of Saudi Arabia’s most high-ranking scientists, she’s
been a pioneer in organizing studies measuring obesity,
diabetes and mental health issues all around the Kingdom.”
Dr. Altwaijri is Senior Scientist and Head of Epidemiology
Research at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research
Center in Riyadh.
https://bit.ly/2K4kPdA
[Editor’s Note: We reported in
a previous issue the death of 35 year old CDC epidemiologist
Timothy Cunningham who disappeared mysteriously in
Atlanta. His body was found in a nearby river about one month
into his disappearance. Local authorities have now ruled his
death as suicide caused by drowning. Many have expressed
skepticism about this cause of death, however, the medical
examiner told the press
“We do our due diligence… If we didn’t know, we
wouldn’t call it that way.”]
Appointed:Ihsan Assam, as chief medical officer in Nevada.
Assam served as Nevada’s chief epidemiologist since 1995
and has 35 years of national and international experience
in epidemiology, public health, and disease control and
prevention.
Elected: Elisabete
Weiderpass,
as the new Director of the International Agency for
Research on Cancer effective January 1, 2019 for a
five-year term. Dr Weiderpass is an expert in cancer
epidemiology and prevention. She currently leads the
Department of Research at the Cancer Registry of Norway
and of the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the Folkhalsan
Research Center in Finland. She holds teaching positions
in several countries.
Appointed:Diane Gross, as regional epidemiologist for a seven
county area in West Virginia. Gross is a former CDC
epidemiologist who has worked on both bacterial and viral
diseases at the federal agency and has served with WHO in
Europe. Gross has a doctorate veterinary medicine as well
as epidemiology and the county is thrilled to have her,
according to Lee Smith, the county health officer.
Interviewed:Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of the World
Health Organization and epidemiologist leading the
response to the Ebola outbreak in the Congo. On this voice
recording, Salama describes the current outbreak and the
challenges it is posing health workers. Listen here:
https://tinyurl.com/y82wxccy
Honored: Leslie
Bernstein,
with the American Association for Cancer Research-American
Cancer Society award for Research Excellence in Cancer
Epidemiology and Prevention. The award recognizes her
contributions showing the impact that lifestyle and
reproductive factors have on breast cancer risk and
survival. Dr Bernstein is a professor in the Division of
Biomarkers of Early Detection and Prevention, Department
of Population Sciences at The City of Hope.
Profiled:Christina Tan, state epidemiologist in New Jersey,
in the New York Times Business Day section. The article
provides a perspective on Vocations, and describes Tan’s
answers to a half-dozen or so questions about how she
became and epidemiologist and what her role is like in
real life. The headline for the article read “Fighting
Disease Is A Battle Often Won With Spreadsheets”.
Profiled:Eve Waltermaurer, senior research scientist at the
State University of New York, New Paltz, in the
publication Hudson Valley One following her
appointment to the New Paltz Valley Planning Board.
Waltermaurer is credited with applying her epidemiologic
training and perspective to ask probing questions and to
look for patterns of all kinds in making planning
decisions.
Appointed:Cora Lewis, as chair, Department of Epidemiology at
the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Lewis was
formerly professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine
in the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Her
research interests include a focus on the epidemiology of
chronic diseases.
Appointed:Robert Redfield as the 18th Director of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He has
experience in clinical research and clinical care of
chronic human viral infections and infectious diseases,
especially HIV. He served as the founding director of the
Department of Retroviral Research within the U.S.
Military’s HIV Research Program and he co-founded the
University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology and
served as the Chief of Infectious Diseases and Vice Chair
of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine.
Honored:Eduardo Franco, with an honorary doctorate degree
from the University of Fenando Pessoa, in Porto Portugal.
In his acceptance speech, Dr Franco expressed his
gratitude for having been a part of the community which
identified human papillomavirus as a cause of cervical
cancer and developed vaccines to prevent it. Dr Franco is
Chair of the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology at
McGill University.
Interviewed:JoAnn Manson, Harvard epidemiologist, by Medical
Xpress after her article published in JAMA on vitamins and
supplements. Asked why the topic is so confusing, she
noted the discrepant findings between randomized trials
and observational studies and the hype about supplements
in the media and advertising.
Speaker:Preetha Rajaraman, at the commencement ceremony for
Reed College graduates. Dr Rajamaran currently serves as
the health attache for India for the US Department of
Health and Human Sevices. She has a PhD in epidemiology
from Johns Hopkins and is a Reed graduate.
Died:Walter W Holland, of prostate cancer on February 9,
2018 at age 88. Holland was a UK epidemiologist described
by the Lancet as a pioneer health services researcher. He
was active in the International Epidemiological
Association for many years.
According to Professor Alistair McGuire
of the Department of Health Policy at the London School of
Economics, “he put the study of avoidable mortality on the
map”.
The Lancet has published a remembrance at:
https://tinyurl.com/ycmjfmo5
Running for Office:Eric L Ding, an epidemiologist, nutrition
scientist, and health economist, for representative in
Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district
which includes the city of Harrisburg. Ding told the
Harvard Crimson he will advocate for affordable health
care and bring evidence-based policy back to Washington.
He told Roll Call,
“I think the message that Donald Trump has
been dismantling all these different public opportunity
and safety nets will really resonate with voters....And
I’m actually here to solve the opioid epidemic ... I’m an
epidemiologist. This is what I do.”
Appointed:Victoria M Gammino, as Chief Science Officer for
Radiant Earth, a leader in open Earth imagery for the
global development community. A former CDC epidemiologist,
Gammino will lead global health research projects, help to
improve access to geospatial data, and strengthen
public-private partnerships in the global health
community. "We aim to expand geospatial infrastructure to
countries and institutions that lack it most, yet require
it to fulfill their global health and development
missions," she said.
Profiled:Miranda Jones, assistant professor in epidemiology,
Lorraine Dean, assistant professor in epidemiology,
Gregory Kirk, professor in epidemiology, Tania
Poteat, assistant professor in epidemiology, Avonne
Connor, assistant professor of epidemiology, and
Anne Rositch, assistant professor in epidemiology in
the spring 2018 issue of Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health.
The six epidemiologists are seeking to eliminate
disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes. To read the
profiles, visit:
https://tinyurl.com/y7aptd3x
[Editor's Note: Since we last went to press
at the end of March, Atlanta public officials in early
April have found the body of CDC epidemiologist Tim
Cunningham in the Chattahoochee River near Cunningham's
home. Apparently Cunningham drowned and there is no
evidence of foul play uncovered to date. We will report
additional details in our next issue later in April.]
MISSING: Timothy Cunningham,
a 35 year old CDC
epidemiologist disappeared suddenly after leaving work on
February 12 telling his colleagues he was not feeling
well. He could not be contacted by his family which was
unusual. His car, keys,
wallet and dog were found left behind at his home which is
not normal behavior for him. Local news reports have
additional information and can be viewed here:
Fox 5 Atlanta News
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to
contact 911 or call 404-546-4235. A reward fund has been
established:
Go FundMe Account
Cunningham trained with CDC as an Epidemic
Intelligence Service officer and at the Harvard School of
Public Health and worked as the Team Lead,
Division of Population Health National Center for Chronic
DiseasePrevention and Health Promotion.
Published:
by Richard Wenzel, former hospital epidemiologist,
a new fiction thriller involving an epidemiologist
entitled “Dreams of Troy”. In speaking with the media,
Wenzel said “…as an infectious diseases specialist with a
degree in epidemiology, I have always loved
epidemics---the high stakes, the need to solve them
expeditiously and the noble mission to help people.”
Appointed:Angela Dunn, as state epidemiologist at the Utah
Department of Health. She went to Utah in 2014 as an
Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, and more recently
served as deputy state epidemiologist. She told the local
newspaper she looks forward to addressing the state’s
opioid epidemic, enhancing chronic disease surveillance,
and leading the state response to communicable disease
outbreaks.
Named:Abdul El-Sayed, as the 2018 Rutgers School of
Public Health Convocation Speaker and Senator Frank
Lautenberg Annual Award recipient. El-Sayed has served as
a faculty member in Departments of Epidemiology at
Michigan and Columbia and as the health director in
Detroit. He resigned his job in Detroit to run for
governor in Michigan in the 2018 Democrat primary.
Named:David Dausey, as Provost and vice-president for
academic affairs at Duquesne University. He has held
similar positions at Mercyhurst University. According to
the press release making this announcement, the president
of Duquesne said “David is a dynamic, strategic leader who
is committed to implementing innovative approaches for
ensuring that faculty and staff can excel in their work
and that students can acquire the knowledge and skills
they need for success…” Dausey earned a doctoral degree in
epidemiology and public health from the Yale Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences and completed post graduate
training in higher education management and leadership at
Harvard University.
Honored:Bruce Psaty, as the University of Washington’s
School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award
Lecturer. Psaty has made exceptional contributions to the
School’s mission of research, teaching, and service. He is
a national leader in post-marketing drug surveillance and
worked to improve FDA regulations. The award lecture will
take place on Feb 27, 2018.
Appointed:Toni Marie Rudisill, as a Research Assistant
Professor, in the Department of Epidemiology at the West
Virginia University School of Public Health. Rudisill has
worked as an epidemiologist at the West Virginia
University Injury Control Center and prior to that as a
scientist in public health in state government.
Profiled:Lorenzo Pezzoli, a WHO infectious disease
epidemiologist based in Geneva, on the PLOS Cholera
Channel. In the interview, Pezzoli describes how he came
to be interested in cholera control after a few years as
“an itinerant epidemiologist”, why he joined the editorial
team at PLOS, the next big questions in the cholera
field, and the importance of open access. Read the
interview at
http://blogs.plos.org/collections/meet-lorenzo-pezzoli-editor-of-the-plos-cholera-channel/
Appointed:Joshua Clayton, as the new state epidemiologist for
South Dakota. He is currently deputy state epidemiologist
in Indiana. He is a former Epidemic Intelligence Service
Officer who served at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention assigned to Tennessee. Clayton is a South
Dakota native.
Died:Jeff Davis, former Wisconsin state epidemiologist
for over 40 years, on January 16, 2018. As described in
his obituary, he was a former Epidemic Intelligence
Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and made numerous important contributions to
disease investigations over the years. He was passionate
about public health especially the health of the people of
Wisconsin, according to his obituary, and had many
personal attributes which endeared him to all. It
continues, “He will be tremendously missed for his gentle
kindness, sense of humor, and his enthusiastic sharing of
his vast knowledge of all things music and sports.”
Appointed:Godwin Ntadom, as the Chief Consultant of the
Federation in Nigeria. He was formerly the Head of Case
Management and Drug Policy in the National Malaria
Elimination Program.
Died:James Melius, former epidemiologist at the National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and other
labor related organizations. He made important
contributions to the health and safety of workers, and
helped in the creation of the federal law that provided
for medical care for first responders and others after the
attack on the World Trade Center, according to the NY
Times. Philip Landrigan, an epidemiologist
colleague in New York City, told the Times, “I think it’s
fair to say that Jim Melius was the senior medical officer
in the entire American labor movement.”
Died:Abby Lippman, age 78, former McGill university
epidemiologist and professor emeritus. According to the
Montreal Gazette, she was equally renowned for championing
social causes as she was for insightful critiques of
reproductive technologies and other medical topics.
Hired:Susan Puumala, as senior researcher at HDR, a
national architecture firm. She will develop studies that
investigate how design affects outcomes such as health,
wellness, satisfaction, and productivity. She earned a
PhD at the University of Minnesota and has a track record
working as a statistician/methodologist and epidemiologist
for the past 17 years.
Appointed:Germaine Buck Louis as Dean of the College of
Health and Human Services at George Mason University. Dr.
Buck Louis was formerly the Director & Senior Investigator
of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research
at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development where she helped build
the first named intramural Division devoted to population
health at the National Institutes of Health. As Dean, Dr.
Buck Louis will help establish a school of public health
and develop its population heath research within the
College, which is home to approximately 1800+
undergraduate and 800+ graduate students.
Appointed:XinQi Dong, as Director of the Institute for
Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers
University. In making the appointment, Rutgers chancellor
Brian Strom noted Dong’s passionate commitment to
interdisciplinary work in medicine and public health.
According to the press release about the appointment, Dong
is a renowned population epidemiologist and health
services researcher who has been a strong advocate for
advancing population health issues in under-represented
communities worldwide.
Awarded:
to Bill Shaffner, Vanderbilt Professor of
Preventive Medicine, the Senior Scholarship Award from the
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The award
is in recognition of Dr Schaffner’s many contributions
over the years as an investigator/practitioner in
infection prevention and health care epidemiology.
Honored:Venkat Narayan, Professor of Global Health and
Epidemiology at Emory University, with the Marion
Creekmore award for Internationalization for his work in
advancing the University’s commitment to
internationalization. “Venkat’s passion for science and
global collaborations have helped position Emory as the
premier US institution in the global cardiometabolic
disease community,” said James Curran, Dean of the
School of Public Health.
Retired:Lon Kightlinger, as state epidemiologist at the
South Dakota Department of Health after almost 20 years of
serving the Department. The governor of South Dakota
proclaimed a recent Friday as “Doctor Lon Kightlinger Day”
in South Dakota. Kightlinger worked in Madagascar for 20
years before taking the South Dakota position and now
plans to return there next year as a Peace Corps
volunteer.
Honored:Noel Weiss, Professor of Epidemiology at the
University of Washington School of Public Health, with the
American Public Health Association’s Abraham Lilienfeld
Award for his lifelong excellence in teaching
epidemiology. According to interim dean Joel Kaufman,
Weiss has “…served as an inspiration and mentor to a
generation of epidemiologists trained at the UW, and
developed and taught the core instructional content that
underpins the outstanding training program here.”
Honored:David Abramson, New York University Clinical
Associate Professor of Public Health, with the Translation
of Disaster Epidemiology into Public Health Special Award,
given by the American College of Epidemiology. This
special award recognizes an individual who has worked at
the intersection of epidemiology and policy by advancing
evidence-based public health interventions targeting
disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, or other aspects
of disaster science.
Honored:Roberta Ness, Professor of Public Health at
UTHealth School of Public Health, with the Abraham
Lilienfeld award from the American College of
Epidemiology. This is the College’s most prestigious award
and is given to a senior leader who has made extraordinary
contributions to the field of epidemiology over the course
of her career through teaching/mentoring and research or
scholarship.
Retired:Robert White II, regional epidemiologist for the
West Virginia Monongalia County Health Department, after
40 years of service. He told the local paper, “I think we
make an impact…After 41 years of doing restaurant and
disease inspections and follow ups and just giving people
some peace of mind I think that’s important and that’s
what gives me a lot of job satisfaction.”
Honored:Julie Palmer, Boston University professor of
epidemiology, as recipient of the 2017 Distinguished
Lecture on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities given
by the Association for Cancer Research. She was honored
for her work on the etiology of breast cancer in African
American women.
Interviewed:John Clemens, Executive Director of the
International Centre For Diarrheal Disease Research,
Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), on the occasion of his global
research organization receiving the $2 million dollar
Hilton Humanitarian Prize for 2017. Said Dr Clemens in
speaking with the Huffington Post, "It’s
wonderful to receive such a prestigious prize, judged by
an independent panel of experts. The prize recognizes the
significant contributions we have made to improving and
saving the lives of millions of people through our
scientific discoveries spanning the last 60 years."
Spotlighted:John Redd, epidemiologist in CDC’s Center for
Global Health, in the Santa Fe New Mexican for his work in
fighting Ebola in West Africa and his deep commitment to
public health. According to a colleague, “He just loves
his fellow humans. I can’t overstate how important that is
when you’re dealing with something like a public health
emergency. He feels the importance of this work at his
core.”
Winner:Gitanjoli Rao, of America’s Young Scientist
Challenge for her invention of a sensor that can more
accurately detect lead levels in water. The 11 year old
girl from Colorado will receive a $25,000 prize. She was
motivated by the ongoing water crisis in Flint Michigan.
She told media sources she wants to be either a geneticist
or an epidemiologist when she grows up.
Profiled:William Foege, former CDC director, in a blog
written by Bill Gates. He credits Foege with being his
mentor on global health issues and helping to guide the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has come to play a
large role in international health. According to Gates, “I
view Bill as the glue that held the global health
community together, getting it to focus on the right
priorities, like raising immunization coverage, and
setting the stage for the progress we’ve seen in global
health over the last 20 years.”
Died:Louisa Chapman, aged 64, medical epidemiologist and
an associate director for science at CDC. Since 1988 she
served in many roles at the agency and was an expert in
viral epidemiology and served as a reviewer/consultant for
multiple organizations. As stated in her obituary, "Louisa
was full of generosity, grace and grit. Once she was
diagnosed with late stage cancer, she never indulged in
self-pity, or wallowed in complaints, but fought back with
humor and strength and continued to live life fully for
another 8 years."
Taking Office:
Henrique Barros,
as President of the International Epidemiological
Association at its recent meeting in Japan. In his
President’s plan for 2017-2020, Dr Barros called for
multiple actions, including deeper engagement with the
representatives of the populations studied (See related
article in this issue). Dr Barros is
President of the Institute of Public
Health, University of Porto in Portugal and will serve a
three year term until the next IEA meeting in Australia in
2020.
Invited Speaker:Danielle Buttke, DVM, PHD National Park Service
epidemiologist will speak about her work
responding to urgent and emergent public health issues in
over 400 National Park units at College of the Atlantic’s
next Human Ecology Forum on September 19, 2017 in Bar
Harbor Maine. Dr. Buttke conducts both human and
veterinary disease surveillance activities, consults parks
on zoonotic disease issues such as tularemia, plague, West
Nile Virus, Lyme, and tick-borne relapsing fever,
coordinates public education and messaging, and has led
public health investigations into a hantavirus outbreak
and two human plague cases.
Winner:Lorena Pacheco, in the Student Research Paper
Contest sponsored by the journal Preventing Chronic
Diseases. Pacheco, one of the top five winners, is an
epidemiology doctoral student at the University of
California San Diego—San Diego State University Joint
Doctoral Program.
Honored:
Bruce Kaplan ,
with the Meritorious Service Award from the American
Veterinary Association. The award is conferred for
bringing distinction to the veterinary profession through
personal, professional, or community service activities
outside organized veterinary medicine and research. He
held positions as an epidemiologist at the CDC and with
the USDA. He has promoted the ONE HEALTH concept that
human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably
interconnected.
Awarded:
To Kristina
Rodriguez,
the David Rosenstein Award for Best Student
Abstract for her APHA abstract entitled “Comparing
MSM on PrEP to those who meet CDC guidance for PrEP use,
but are not taking it: Results from a U.S. National
Sample.”
Rodriquez is an
epidemiology doctoral student at the
City University of New York Graduate School of Public
Health and Health Policy. The award will be presented at
the APHA annual meeting in Atlanta, GA in November.
Died:Kathryn Marie Rose , age 59, on September 5th, 2017
after a long battle with cancer. Dr Rose was a member of
the Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology Department at UNC
and during the final years of her career at Social &
Scientific Systems.
“Kathy made
many contributions to our department’s research on
cardiovascular disease, including risk factors for and
outcome from migraine headaches,” according to Andrew
Olshanchair of the Gillings School
epidemiology department. “She also was very interested in
neighborhood socio-economic status and contextual aspects
of community and their role in determining cardiovascular
health. She is fondly remembered as a student mentor and
engaged faculty member.”
Died: Paul
Stolley,
at home of bone cancer at age 80. Dr Stolley was a leading
figure in epidemiology for many years, particularly in the
area of drug epidemiology. He founded the Clinical
Epidemiology Unit at Penn and was chairman of the
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the
University of Maryland School of Medicine.
In the Baltimore Sun obituary, fellow
epidemiologist Brian Strom said “He was focused on
doing well by as many people as possible,” and his
daughter added “He thought it was very important to do
public service, and he taught all of us that we should be
working to help others in any way we could. He was best
able to help others by doing his meticulous research.”
Remarks from his 1983 SER Presidential address, one of our
favorites, are reprinted in this issue to honor his
memory. To read the obituary, visit:
https://tinyurl.com/y9lflly7
Honored:George Davey Smith, with the 2017 Richard Doll
Prize from the International Epidemiological Society.
Davey Smith is Professor of clinical epidemiology at the
University of Bristol and a former co-editor of the
International Journal of Epidemiology from 2000-2016.
Interviewed:John Brownstein, in Nature about his career path in
population health and disease surveillance. He has made
use of large data sets from the internet to track disease
outbreaks and identified private sector funding
opportunities with Uber and Google among other companies.
Brownstein is an epidemiologist at Harvard University and
Boston Children’s Hospital.
Married:Mark Weng, pediatrician and Epidemic Intelligence
Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, to Rosalie Love on July 26, 2017. Ms. Love was
until recently a publishing assistant at Cambridge
University press. The bride and groom met as students in
London.
Profiled:Alain Mukendi, by the African Union’s Directorate
of Information and Communication. Mukendi is a Congolese
medical epidemiologist who is volunteering with the Africa
CDC to help combat Ebola.
Honored:Donna
Arnett, with
the 2017 Gold Heart by The American Heart Association. The
award is the highest honor the AHA gives in recognition of
continued distinguished service. Arnett, dean and
professor of epidemiology at the University of Kentucky
College of Public Health, was recognized for her
contributions supporting AHA initiatives for
cardiovascular disease prevention, health equity and
workplace health.
Honored: Tim Jones,
with the Pumphandle Award, from the Council of State and
Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) in recognition of his
outstanding achievement in the field of applied
epidemiology. He has served as Tennessee state
epidemiologist since 2007 and has investigated numerous
outbreaks resulting in recalls, health improvements, and
countless lives saved, according to CSTE. He currently
serves as both state epidemiologist and an assistant
commissioner of the communicable and environmental disease
and emergency preparedness division.
Honored:Ellicott Matthay, with the Tyroler Student Prize
Paper at SER. She is a PHD candidate at the University of
California Berkeley. The award recognizes the best
submitted paper by a student in a doctoral program with a
major in epidemiology. Her current research is focused on
the causes and consequences of community violence.
Honored:Polly Marchbanks, with the Distinguished Service to
SER award, at its recent meeting in Seattle. Dr Marchbanks
has
been an active member of SER serving as a Member-at-Large
of the Executive Committee, a local host for the annual
meeting, and President. She coordinated and chaired the
SER Late-Breaker Session for 22 years. She retired from a
long career at CDC in 2015.
Appointed:Jerome Adams, as Surgeon General of the United
States. According to APHA, Dr. Adams has extensive
experience in health care and has worked on the front
lines of public health in Indiana, and his status as a
working physician will serve him well in leading our
nation’s health promotion and disease prevention efforts.”
Appointed:
Brenda Fitzgerald, as the new Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fitzgerald
served as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public
Health since 2011. APHA President George Benjamin welcomed
the appointment saying "Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald is a strong
choice to lead the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention…from her work as a practicing
obstetrician-gynecologist to her recent service as the
commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health,
Dr. Fitzgerald is more than prepared to face the health
challenges of our time, including climate change, Zika,
Ebola, and our growing burden of chronic disease. She has
shown tremendous leadership in the fields of maternal and
child health, making early childhood development a
priority throughout her work in Georgia. “
Honored:Ken Rothman, with the Career Accomplishment award
at this year’s SER meeting.
Dr
Rothman’s main career focus has been the development and
teaching of the concepts and methods of epidemiologic
research. He has written two epidemiologic textbooks and
has served in an editorial capacity for many journals,
including Epidemiology which he started. He is a Past
President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. He is
currently a Distinguished Fellow at Research Triangle
Institute.
Appointed:Jonathan Samet, as dean of the Colorado School of
Public Health. A well-known epidemiologist, Samet is
currently chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine
as the University of Southern California and holds other
key appointments. The Chancellor at the University of
Colorado said “As its third dean, Dr. Samet, who brings
the experience of a long and distinguished career in
academic medicine and public health, is uniquely qualified
to take the Colorado School of Public Health to new
heights.”
Honored:
Jay Kaufman,
with the Excellence in Education award given by SER for
substantial contributions to the field of
epidemiology through impact on the career trajectory of
mentees, trainees, or students. Dr Kaufman is currently
Professor and Canada Research Chair in
Health Disparities in the Department of Epidemiology,
Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University
(Montreal, Quebec).
Honored:Neal Goldstein, with the Lilienfeld Post-Doctoral
Paper which recognizes recognize outstanding postdoctoral
research in epidemiology. To be eligible, the paper must
have been written as part of the applicant’s postdoctoral
training in the 3 years leading up to the June meeting. Dr
Goldstein is an infectious disease epidemiologist and
research fellow at Christiana Care Health System and a
research assistant professor at Drexel University.
Honored:Laura Rosella, with the Brian MacMahon Early Career
award in recognition of substantial contributions to the
field in less than 7 years since her terminal degree and
her potential to become a future leader in epidemiology.
She has authored 100 peer-reviewed
publications in the area of public health, public health
policy, and health services research. She currently holds
a position at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at
the University of Toronto.
Died:William Satariano, on May 28 of lymphoma at age 70.
He was Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health
Sciences and Director of Undergraduate Health Programs at
UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He was trained as a
sociologist and credited with pioneering the field of
social epidemiology at UC Berkeley. Art Reingold,
head of epidemiology at Berkeley, said “Bill was smart,
funny, self-deprecating, and inevitably willing to lend a
hand…He will be deeply missed by his colleagues, students,
family, and many, many friends.”
Awarded:Douglas Wiebe, with the 2017 $5,000 Rothman prize
for the best paper published in Epidemiology in 2016. The
paper is entitled
“Mapping Activity Patterns to Quantify Risk
of Violent Assault in Urban Environments,” and appeared in
January 2016. Dr. Wiebe is an Associate Professor of
Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman
School of Medicine and a Senior Fellow at the Center for
Injury Research and Prevention.
Featured:Sean Hennessy, Professor of epidemiology, in Penn
Medicine News, as the senior author of a new study design
that can be useful in studying drugs that have a rapidly
increasing or decreasing trend in consumption. Published
in Epidemiology, the paper uses a new “trend-in-trend”
design. According to Hennessy “…it’s looking at trends in
the frequency of outcome as a function of trends in the
frequency of exposure. Even when there are unmeasured
factors that are different between groups and those
factors affect the outcome, --this study will give the
correct answer.”
Honored:Loretta DiPietro, George Washington University
epidemiologist, with a Citation Award from the American
College of Sports Medicine. In recognizing her, the
President of the College said award winners “are selected
for their leadership and contributions in the areas of
research and scholarship, clinical care, administrative or
educational services. We’re happy to recognize Dr
DiPietro’s tremendous accomplishments.” Dr DiPietro is
currently chair of the Department of Exercise and
Nutrition Sciences. She was one of the first graduate
students in exercise epidemiology at Yale.
Honored:Carol Hogue, epidemiologist and Jules and
Uldeen Terry Chair in Maternal and Child Health at the
Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University
with the 2017 Thomas Jefferson award given to
recognize personal and professional integrity as well
as distinguished service in teaching, research and
scholarship, non-academic accomplishments related to
students, university advancement and development, and
community or educational service.
Honored:Lisa Berkman,
Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy,
Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, and
director of the Harvard
Center for Population and Development Studies
with the Mentoring Award from the Committee on the
Advancement of Women Faculty at the Harvard Chan
School of Public Health. The award is given to
celebrate the essential role of mentors
in the
success of Harvard Chan school faculty members and the
growth of the School community.
Commencement Speaker:Michael Marmot, at the University of Miami on
May 10, 2017. He told the graduates, “I invite you,
join me in my fantasy land, and let’s dream of a
fairer world.” Marmot was referring to criticisms he
has received for seeking a fairer distribution of
power, money, and resources to help address the social
determinants of health. Read his commencement address
here:
https://tinyurl.com/ycrnb34f
Honored:Claes Tingvall, Swedish epidemiologist, with an
honorary doctorate degree from Emory University.
At the Swedish Transport Administration, he had a
leading role in developing the policy of Vision Zero,
i.e., a road transport system free of death and
serious injury resulting from road crashes.
Retired: Richard
Hopkins,
University of Florida epidemiologist, on May 1, 2017.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Florida,
Hopkins served as state epidemiologist in both
Colorado and in Florida. He is an alumnus of CDC’s
Epidemic Intelligence Service.
Elected:Chandra Mani Pandey, as the 21st
President of the International Epidemiological
Association. Professor Pandey is head of the
Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics,
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow,
Uttar Pradesh, India and is a noted biostatistician
and public health expert.
Honored:Danya Keene, assistant professor in the Yale
University Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology,
with the 2017 Distinguished Student Mentor award by
the graduating class at the Yale School of Public
Health. She was selected for her individualized
attention, support, and encouragement and being an
exemplar of excellence to her students and advisees.
Honored:David Felson, professor of epidemiology and
medicine at Boston University, with the Carol Nachman
Prize for Rheumatology. The prize is the most
prestigious international award for research in
rheumatology. His research has focused on how to
prevent and treat osteoarthritis.
Sentenced:Corrine Miller, former state epidemiologist in
Michigan, to 12 months of probation, 300 hours of
community service, and a fine of one thousand dollars for
her role in the Flint water crisis. According to media
accounts, Miller was allegedly aware of dozens of cases of
Legionnaire’s disease in the Flint area around the same
time the city changed its water source to the Flint River,
but she didn't report it to the general public. Miller
pleaded “no contest’ to a misdemeanor charge as part of a
plea deal that has her cooperating with prosecutors.
Died:Barry Miller Farr in Charlottesville on February
15, 2017. Farr served as Hospital Epidemiologist at the
University of Virginia for 18 years and directed a Master
of Science program in epidemiology for 11 years. He
retired as the William S Jordan, Jr., Professor of
Medicine and Epidemiology at UVA at 52 because of physical
disability due to the paralytic effects of multiple
sclerosis. He was widely known for epidemiologic studies
about control of healthcare related infections,
particularly antibiotic-resistant infections and catheter
infections. He served as President of the Society for
Hospital Epidemiology of America (SHEA) in 2002 and Editor
of the SHEA scientific journal Infection Control and
Hospital Epidemiology from 2001 to 2004.
Honored:Meir Stampfer, as recipient of the AACR-American Cancer
Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer
Epidemiology and Prevention. Stampfer is professor of
epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health and Associate Director, Channing Division of
Network Medicine Department of Medicine, Brigham And
Women’s Hospital. According to the AACR, Stampfer’s
discovery that increased expression of insulin-like growth
factor in the blood could predict elevated risk of
prostate cancer is thought to have launched a major new
field of epidemiologic investigation.
Honored:Kristine Yaffe, University of California San
Francisco and Claudia Kawas with the Potamkin
Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s, and Related
Diseases. The investigators are described as two pioneers
in the epidemiology of dementia and the $100,000 Prize
rewards contributions to research in
neurodegenerative disease.
Named: William
"Bill" Sorensen,
as a Fulbright Scholar. Sorensen is an associate professor
within the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the
University of Texas at Tyler. He has taught at UT Tyler
since 2004, and his research interests include
epidemiology and research design in health studies.
Killed:
Chesmal Siriwardhana,
aged 38, by a bus as he made his way home after a night
out with friends.He had earned a PHD in
psychiatric epidemiology and was a researcher and tutor at
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Peter
Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine, said: “Chesmal joined the School in 2016 and was
a highly regarded researcher and tutor in global mental
health. Through his work on armed conflict, migration and
mental health, he was at the forefront of some of the
major public health challenges of the day.
Honored: Cassandra
K. Crifasiassistant professor in
the Department of Health Policy and Management at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with the
Jess Kraus Award given each year to the author(s) of the
best paper published in Injury Epidemiology. The winner
receives a commemorative plaque and is invited by the
editorial office to present a special seminar at Columbia
University. Crifasi won the award for her paper “Assaults
against U.S. law enforcement officers in the line-of-duty:
situational context and predictors of lethality”.
Named:Julie Slezak, as Executive Vice President of
Clinical Analytics for GNS Healthcare. Slezak headed
similar analytics positions in other companies before
coming to GNS. According to the company, "As
a proven leader in both epidemiology and analytics, Julie
brings an extraordinary combination of experience and
training to GNS. Julie will translate discoveries from our
causal machine learning and simulation platform spanning a
range of diseases and healthcare system scenarios into
high-value clinical practices and ROI across our growing
list of product and solution offerings.”
Honored:Olivier Bruyere, with the 2017 International
Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Olof Johnell Science Award.
The Award recognizes extraordinary and internationally
recognized contributions to the field of osteoporosis in a
scientific or policy implementation area. Bruyère is
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of
Public Health, Epidemiology and Health Economics,
Professor of Geriatrics Rehabilitation in the Department
of Motricity Sciences, and Head, Support Unit,
Epidemiology and Biostatistics, at the University of Liège,
Belgium.
Married:Shoshana Goldberg, 30, from the Carolina Population
Center, to Noah Eisenkraft, 34, on April 20, 2017. Dr
Goldberg earned a PhD in maternal and child health and
epidemiology from UNC Chapel Hill. The groom is an
assistant professor of organizational behavior at UNC.
Died: Shalon M.
Irving,
PhD, MPH, MS, Lieutenant Commander and epidemiologist in
the Surveillance Branch of the CDC. An alumni of the
Epidemic Intelligence Service (‘12), Dr. Irving’s
dedication to public health was evidenced through her
commitment to the prevention of child abuse and violence
against women and the elimination of racial disparities in
health. More information can be found at the following
link:
https://tinyurl.com/zxs5ley
Died: Hans
Rosling,
MD, PhD, Professor of International Health at the
Karolinska Institute and Co-Founder and Educator at
Gapminder Foundation, from pancreatic cancer. Recently the
subject of a fascinating profile in Nature, Rosling
had a long and varied career as a physician,
epidemiologist and statistician, influencing the thinking
of leaders including Melinda Gates, Al Gore, Mark
Zuckerberg and even Fidel Castro. In his later years at
Gapminder, Dr. Rosling became a self-described “Edutainer”
and was well known for his TED talks.
Profiled: Stephen H.
Gehlbach,
MD, MPH, former Dean of the School of Public Health and
Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, in The Sentinel, upon the release of an
updated edition of his classic epidemiology text,
American Plagues. “The
lure of epidemiology for me is rather simple. It’s about
solving puzzles. That’s an activity that many people find
engaging but when it involves finding solutions to health
problems, it’s particularly compelling … Challenging
questions, important answers and the stuff of a career
that has been most satisfying.” The profile can be found
at the following link:
https://tinyurl.com/gue9dx5
Lecturer:Katherine Fleming-Dutra, MD, on antibiotic
stewardship as part of a lecture series organized by
Southwest Health Systems in Montezuma County, CO. Dr.
Fleming-Dutra, a medical
epidemiologist with the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship
at the CDC explained, “(This is) a very clear target for
us to go after” when describing the 10% of antibiotic
prescriptions that are incorrectly used to treat
bronchitis and upper respiratory infections in the US.
https://tinyurl.com/henjadn
Honored:Jonathan Samet, with the 2016 Fries Prize for
Improving Health, for his pioneering research and decades
of advocacy on the negative impacts of air pollution on
health. Samet is chair of preventive medicine at USC and
director of the Global Health Institute there. In giving
the award, the chair of the Fries foundation stated that
Samet’s research and policy leadership have directly
contributed to the avoidance of hundreds of thousands of
premature deaths and hospitalizations.
Recognized:
Community health workers, biomedical researchers,
epidemiologists, nurses and many others devoted to public
health, on November 21 Public Health Thank You Day
organized by Research! America and other health
organizations. “To all who have dedicated their careers to
help us live our lives to the fullest, thank you!, said
CDC Director Thomas Frieden on behalf of the organizers.
Honored:Kaare Christensen, with the Fondation IPSEN
Longevity Prize for his pioneering work on the importance
of genes and environment in aging and longevity.
Christensen is Professor of Epidemiology at the University
of Southern Denmark, Director of the Danish Twin Registry
and the Danish Aging Research Center, and Senior Research
Scientist at Duke University.
Named:Stella Uzogara as a Fellow of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics. Dr Uzogara is a nutrition
epidemiologist who has worked for several years in the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health in various
capacities and as a faculty member in local universities.
The Fellow designation recognizes Academy members who have
distinguished themselves among their colleagues, made
commitments to the field of nutrition and dietetics,
served in their communities, gave their service to the
nutrition and dietetics profession, and contributed to
optimizing the nation’s health through food and nutrition.
Died:John Bailar III, former NCI epidemiologist and
biostatistician and department head at McGill and the
University of Chicago. According to Cancer Letter, Dr
Bailar was probably best known for his critiques of the
war on cancer and the excessive focus on treatment rather
than prevention. His 1997 paper in the NEJM co-authored
with Heather Gornik concludes “A national commitment to
the prevention of cancer, largely replacing reliance on
hopes for universal cures, is now the way to go.”
Obituary:
https://tinyurl.com/jqr64ts
Appointed:Paul Byers, as Mississippi state epidemiologist. Dr
Byers has been the deputy state epidemiologists since
2012. His experience with the state department of health
was highlighted and called a “great asset” by the
departmental leadership in making his appointment.
Interviewed:Allen J Wilcox, in the September issue of
Epidemiology. Dr Wilcox has spent his career at the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in
Durham NC and was formerly the editor of Epidemiology.
Asked what he wants to be remembered for, Wilcox said “…If
there is anything, it would probably be for trying to
bring epidemiologic tools to perinatal epidemiology and
conversely, to bring the insights of perinatal
epidemiology to the wider field of epidemiology…”
Died:
Donald A. (DA) Henderson,
former head of the WHO effort which led to the
eradication of smallpox. DA, as he was widely known,
was a former CDC trained epidemiologist who later went
on to become the Dean of the Hopkins School of Public
Health. The CDC director Tom Frieden called DA a
giant in the field of public health and someone who
set a precedent for the field of epidemiology. Full
obituary:
https://tinyurl.com/hpe2oeb
Died: Harrison
Spencer,
Head of the Association of Schools of Public Health, in a
tragic family related incident. He was stabbed to death
by his son who had a history of mental illness. Dr.
Spencer was formerly a CDC epidemiologist who had
extensive international experience and was much admired
and respected in his leadership role at the Association.
Full obituary: https://tinyurl.com/gwqtaj7
Resigned: Megan
Davies,
as North Carolina State epidemiologist following
publication of an editorial by the state health
director which Davies asserted misrepresented the work
of the public health professionals in the state. See
related article in this publication.
Indicted: Corrine
Miller,
former Michigan State epidemiologist for her role in the
Flint water related crisis. She was accused of
instructing others not to take action on a report about
lead poisoning and telling them to delete relevant emails
about the report. Miller retired from her position
earlier this year. See related article in the Epi News
Briefs section of this publication.
Appointed: Susan
Rollo,
as Texas State epidemiologist . Dr. Rollo previously
served in a field epidemiologist position for the
Texas Animal Health Commission.
Archived
Notes on People
Died:Philip Brachman, Professor of Global Health and
Epidemiology at Emory University on June 6, 2016. Dr
Brachman had formerly served as Director of the CDC’s
Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) for more than a decade
in the 1970’s before undertaking his second career at
Emory. There he developed new courses and taught public
health practitioners from around the world. He also was an
instrumental leader of the summer sessions in epidemiology
first in Minnesota and then in Michigan. After his
passing, CDC colleagues said “We lost a true hero in
epidemiology this week…In a career spanning 62 years as a
medical epidemiologist, [he] played a truly seminal role
in the formation of the EIS program as we know it today,
and indeed the training of epidemiologists globally.”
Appointed:Karin Michels, as Professor of Epidemiology and
new Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA’s
Fielding School of Public Health. Dr Michels is
currently an associate professor in obstetrics,
gynecology, and reproductive biology in the Harvard
Medical School and in the Department of Epidemiology
in the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. “She is a
great leader in both academics and research and will
lead our department to the next level,” said Zuo-Feng
Zhang, interim chair of epidemiology.
Married:Helene Gayle, aged 60, epidemiologist and
pediatrician, former head of HIV/AIDS at CDC and at the
Gates Foundation on June 4, 2016 to Stephen Keith,
culminating a relationship that was decades in the making.
The couple had a unique history leading up to the marriage
proposal described in a NY Times feature story entitled
“Sharing ideals, friendship and, after 37 years, a wedding
day.”
Appointed:Albert Hofman, as the new Chair of the
Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School
of Public Health. Dr Hofman was formerly Chair of
Epidemiology at the Erasmus Medical Center in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands. According to Harvard, Dr
Hofman is an internationally recognized scientific
leader in the epidemiology of common neurologic and
vascular diseases, in particular dementia and stroke.
The School described his record of investigation as
extraordinary in both quantity and quality.
Honored:John Jackson and Sonja Swanson with the
Rothman Prize for the best paper published in Epidemiology
in 2015. The paper was entitled “Toward a Clearer
Portrayal of Confounding Bias in Instrumental Variable
Applications.” The co-authors worked together at the
Harvard Chan School of Public Health where Jackson is a
postdoctoral fellow and Swanson is an adjunct assistant
professor and an assistant professor at Erasmus.
Married: Jessica Paulus,
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Director
of the graduate program in clinical and translational
science at Tufts on July 9 to Todd Wesley Thompson,
a research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center and Harvard Medical School. The couple were
introduced through Ok Cupid in 2013, according to the
NY Times.
Appointed:Stephen Leeder, as the new editor of the
International Journal of Epidemiology effective January 1,
2017.
Leeder is Professor of Public Health and
Community Medicine at the University of Sydney, Australia,
Leeder was Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Journal of
Australia in 2013-15. In the 1990s he was President of the
Australasian Epidemiological Association and head of the
Sydney School of Public Health. Later he served as Dean of
the Medical School at the University of Sydney.
Appointed:Matthew Gillman, as head of the newly
reconstituted National Children’s Study now called
Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes
(ECHO). Gillman is an epidemiologist at Harvard
Medical School who was involved with the original NCS.
Gillman was quoted in Science saying the new long term
study is “set up in a way that will breed success.”
Presumably that means better leadership since the
original study was criticized for weak scientific
leadership.
Elected:Christl Donnelly, as Fellow of the Royal Society in
the UK. Donnelly is Professor of Statistical
Epidemiology in Imperial’s School of Public Health. Her
research looks at how control measures can change the way
in which infectious diseases spread through a population.
In receiving the honor, Donnelly stated
“I
have been extremely fortunate over the years to work with
amazing colleagues and collaborators. Most rewarding were
the opportunities to undertake work informing policymakers
on diseases ranging from BSE and bovine TB to SARS and
Ebola.”
Honored:Willian Foege, with an honorary Doctor of
Science degree from Duke University at its recent
graduation ceremony and with the Emory University
President’s Medal where he gave the Commencement
address titled “Lessons I Am Still Desperately Trying
To Learn”. Foege is
Emeritus Presidential Distinguished
Professor of International Health, Emory University,
and a Gates Fellow. According to a news account from
Emory, Foege’s key points to the graduates were:
1. Consciously edit your own obituary
every day. Edit with care and edit with gusto.
2. Avoid making a life plan. You cannot
imagine what will be invented in the future; you
cannot imagine the opportunities that will be
presented. A life plan will limit your future.
3. Instead of a life plan, spend your
time developing a life philosophy; then you will have
tools for evaluating every fork in the road. Tradition
is the DNA of our beliefs. Question the bias of
traditions and question the certainty of those with
biases.
4. Integrate your world of knowledge.
Bridge the gap between science and the humanities
every day. Be a globalist and a futurist. Be good
ancestors. Take seriously climate change. Because each
of us can do so little, it is important that we do our
part.
5. Actively seek mentors. Identify the
people who have the traits, the ideas and philosophies
that you want and get their help. Borrow their wisdom.
6. For all the problems in the world,
there has never been a better time to be alive. Just
as your life expectancy is increasing, what you can do
in that lifetime continues to increase. You will pack
centuries into 80 calendar years.
7. Seek equity and justice. The slavery
of today is poverty. What a great thought to have
graduates of Emory lead that change.
8. Seek serendipity, which can happen
through learning, being in the moment, and looking for
connections.
9. One measure of civilization is how
people treat each other — kindness is the basic
ingredient. How you treat people is a healing force in
this world. Be kind to one another.
10. May this phrase stick with you
forever: "Home is not where you are from; home is
where you are needed." As I congratulate you on what
you have done, I also hope we all find our way home.
Honored:Mary Currier, Mississippi State Health Officer,
with the Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government
Service by the American Medical Association. She was
formerly the Mississippi state epidemiologist.
Profiled in WebMD:Paul Mead, working in CDC’s Emergency
Operations Center on Zika virus. Mead is normally
chief of epidemiology and surveillance for Lyme
disease. He told WebMD his group is looking for
unusual cases to help better understand Zika modes of
transmission. Asked what would be the smoking gun that
proves Zika causes microcephaly and/or Guillan Barre
Syndrome, Mead said “In some ways, proof is kind of
the weight of many different kinds of scientific
evidence that’s kind of decided by the scientific
community as a whole, when people really become
convinced.”
Thanked:Roger Detels, UCLA epidemiologist, by the Minister
of Health of Vietnam for his contributions to the health
and well-being of the Vietnamese and to the development of
medicine in that country. Detels has received similar
recognition by other countries in Asia for his work
related to handling the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Died:Myron “Mike” Schultz, CDC epidemiologist for
over 50 years, on February 19, 2016. He was called a
true public health legend for his long service and a
public health super sleuth for his work directing 130
field epidemiologic investigations and multiple other
activities related to disease prevention and health
promotion. According to his alumni colleagues in the
Epidemic Intelligence Service, “Mike was known
throughout CDC for his sharp mind, quick wit, and big
heart. Stories abound of his willingness to listen,
take an interest, and to connect people with
resources.” A full obituary is at legacy.com
Honored:Geoff Dougherty, social epidemiologist working with
US News & World Report, by the American Association of
Health Care Journalists for Excellence in Health Care
Journalism. Doughterty co-wrote the story “Risks Are High
At Low Volume Hospitals”. The writers reported that
hospitals continue to perform hip and knee replacements at
low volumes despite the well-known risks to patients.
Died:Edward Lammer, at age 62 on February 20, 2016.
The former CDC epidemiologist and principal
investigator at the University of California San
Francisco’s Children’s Hospital Research Institute
died unexpectedly just before his 63rd
birthday. His early career involved work on the acne
drug Accutane which was associated with severe birth
defects, and he continued working on genetic and
environmental causes of birth defects throughout his
career. A full obituary is at legacy.com
Honored:Brian L. Strom, pharmacoepidemiologist, with the
Oscar B. Hunter Career Award in Therapeutics by the
American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and
Therapeutics for outstanding contributions to clinical
pharmacology and therapeutics. Storm is currently
chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. He
is the former Executive Vice Dean of Institutional
Affairs, Founding Chair of the Department of Biostatistics
and Epidemiology, Founding Director of the Center for
Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Founding
Director of the Graduate Program in Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, all at the Perelman School of Medicine of
the University of Pennsylvania.
DIED:Ward Cates, at age 73, on March 17, 2016. His
obituary notes "the world has lost one of the
champions of public health and a pioneer researcher in
the fields of HIV/AIDS and women's reproductive
health." He worked for many years at CDC and later at
Family Health International where he was President
Emeritus of Research at FHI at the time of his death.
As his Yale classmates pointed out, he had a "unique
ability to light up a room with his contagious
ebullience."
Named:Michelle Williams, as Dean of the Harvard Chan
School of Public Health starting in July. Dr Williams is
currently the Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at
Harvard. The President of Harvard told the Harvard
Gazette, “Michelle Williams is an eminent epidemiologist,
an outstanding teacher and mentor, and an energizing
leader and institutional citizen, impassioned about the
power of public health to change people’s lives for the
better.”
Elected:Chen Chien-Jen, as vice-president of Taiwan in
mid-January. Chen is an epidemiologist who made a
reputation for himself in the way he handled the SARS
outbreak in 2003. He has carried out influential
studies on arsenic and hepatitis according to Nature
and is widely respected throughout the country in many
different communities.
Murdered:Sandra Thomas-Trudo, Chief Epidemiologist of the
Nashville Health Department. The Director of Nashville
Public Health called her an intelligent, passionate public
health professional and a valued member of our team.”
According to press accounts, her husband implicated
himself in the stabbing murder and was arrested. There was
no known history of domestic violence.
Named:Paul VanVeldhuisen, as Chief Operating Officer
of the Emmes Corporation, a research support company.
He holds a PhD in epidemiology from George Washington
University. The president of Emmes told FierceBiotech
“Paul’s vision, leadership, and understanding of our
business and culture make him an ideal COO, and I am
looking forward to working with him in his new role.”
In the same article, VanVeldhuisen, noted “What has
stayed consistent during my 22 years here is our
commitment to provide critical services that address
important issues in public health…These are the kinds
of challenges that inspire our staff to do their best.
It’s the dedicated employees committed to Emmes’
mission that make this a remarkable place to work.”
Honored:W Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology
at the Columbia School of Public, with the China
International Science and Technology Cooperation Award.
Conferred by the President of China, the award is
considered China’s top science honor.
Appointed:Bhramar Mukherjee, as Associate Director for
Population Science Research at the University of Michigan
Comprehensive Cancer Center. Mukherjee is professor of
biostatistics and of epidemiology at the University’s
School of Public Health. She is described as a ‘stellar
researcher in biostatistics, epidemiology, and
disparities.'
Died:
Betty Mansour,
retired Associate Professor of Public Health at the
University of Alaska, Anchorage, of bowel cancer at age
66. She was the key promoter of the IEA Congress held in
Alaska in 2014 where she met many colleagues. Dr.
Rhonda Johnson, a colleague, wrote “We are so grateful
that Betty decided to explore ‘the far North’ for the
final stages of her career. She made many genuine
contributions to the development and success of our
graduate program in public health at the University of
Alaska, Anchorage, and she will be warmly remembered and
much missed!
Appointed:Sally Vernon, to the Board of Scientific Counselors
for Clinical Sciences and Epidemiology at the National
Cancer Institute. Vernon is chair of the Department of
Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the University
of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston School of
Public Health. She will make site visits to NCI labs and
help evaluate the research programs NCI is carrying out.
Tribute Paid:
To Dimitrios Trichopoulos, by more than 20 speakers
at a day long symposium at Harvard’s School of Public
Health. Trichopoulos was a Professor of Epidemiology at
Harvard and a leading cancer epidemiologist. “He was
generous, had a kind spirit, and a long-lasting love
affair with the discipline of epidemiology ," Michelle
Williams, the current chair of epidemiology at Harvard
Profiled:David Kleinbaum, Professor at the Emory Rollins
School of Public Health in the December 15 issue of Emory
Report. According to the profile, “From Hawaiian shirts to
playing in a jazz band, epidemiology professor David
Kleinbaum is known for creativity. After almost five
decades, he’s still devising new ways to engage
students—including this year’s debut of ActivEpi Web.”
Profiled and Honored:Sheryl Magzamen, Assistant Professor at Colorado
State University (CSU) in Fort Collins Colorado. CSU’s The
Source notes Magzamen is only one of seven promising young
researchers currently funded in the environmental health
sciences. She will receive the Zoetis Research Excellence
Award at the end of January from the College of Veterinary
Medicine and Biological Sciences.
Honored:
Ian Dohoo,
Professor Emeritus of epidemiology at the Atlantic
Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward
Island with a lifetime achievement award by the
International Society for Veternnary Epidemiology and
Economics. Dohoo is known worldwide for his expertise in
veterinary epidemiology.
Honored:Michael Marmot, with the 2015 Prince Mahidol Award
in Public Health. Marmot is described as "a pioneer in the
field of social epidemiology for 35 years". The award was
established in commemoration of the centenary of the birth
of Prince Mahidol and consists of a medal, certificate,
and a sum of $100,000. The award will be presented on
January 28, 2016 in Thailand.
Honored:JoAnn Manson, Harvard epidemiologist and professor
as recipient of the Thomas Clarkson Outstanding Research
Award from the North American Menopause Society in October
2015 for exceptional contributions to the understanding of
women’s cardiovascular health. Dr. Manson is professor in
the Harvard School of Public Health, the Medical School,
and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Appointed:Kathy Helzlsouer, as chief medical officer and as an
associate director in the National Cancer Institute’s Division
of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. She will direct
several branches in the Epidemiology and Genomics Research
Program. The director of the Division called Helzlsouer “a
highly accomplished epidemiologist and clinician with a broad
vision of cancer epidemiology, prevention, and control.
Profiled:Yasmin Altwaijri, head of epidemiology at King
Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia, in Tufts Now. She is of interest because she
is “blazing a trail for epidemiology and for Saudi women
in science,” according to the almost 1300 word article
about Alwaijri and the challenges of doing epidemiology in
her country. To read the profile visit
http://now.tufts.edu/articles/breaking-veiled-ceiling
Honored:Michael Criqui, as recipient of the Eugene Braunwald
Academic Mentorship Award “in recognition of his exceptional
dedication and achievement as a mentor to more than 500 junior
faculty members, fellows, and other trainees while achieving
success as a medical scientist, physician, and educator. Dr
Criqui has made major contributions to the study of
cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention. Dr Criqui is
currently at the University of California San Diego as a
Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine and of
Family and Preventive Medicine.
Died:James Mendlein, retired CDC epidemiologist and
Public Health Service Captain, on September 14, 2015. He
received his PHD and MPH degrees from UCLA and was part of
the Epidemic Intelligence Service class of 1985. He
subsequently worked in multiple different programs at CDC
including the Division of Injury Control, Division of
Nutrition and Physical Activity, and the Division of
International Health. In this last unit he worked with the
Field Epidemiology Training Program where he extended his
influence to epidemiologists in many countries.
Died:Leon Gordis, 81, of a subdural hematoma, on September 7
in New York City. Gordis was the former chair of the
Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and author of
“Epidemiology”, a widely used textbook. In an obituary in the
Baltimore Sun, David Celentano, the current chair of
Epidemiology at Hopkins, called Gordis a really impressive
teacher who was loved by generations of students. A funeral
and burial were held September 8 in Jerusalem.
Appointed:Tomas Nuño, as research assistant professor in the
University of Arizona Department of Emergency Medicine.
Nuño completed both doctoral and post-doctoral training
at the University of Arizona. In a press reléase
describing the announcement, the head of the Department
called Nuño “an amazing talent” and said he will be a
“tremendous asset” to the ongoing research programs.
Died:Donald Millar, 81, of kidney failure, at his home in
Murrayville, Georgia. Millar was a former director of multiple
CDC programs, including those on smallpox eradication,
environmental, and occupational health. CDC colleagues said in
announcing his death that Millar “considered the continuing
toll of missed opportunity in public health ‘an obscenity’,
and one of his keynotes was to ask—Where is the outrage? He
used this question to ask of himself and of all of the CDC
staff to do always more for the public’s health, said
colleagues.
Honored: Doctors
Without Borders,
with the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award, “for bold
leadership in responding to the recent Ebola outbreak and
for sustained and effective frontline responses to health
emergencies.” (See
related article).
Named: Timothy Lash,
professor of
epidemiology at Emory University Rollins School of Public
Health, as leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control
Research Program atWinship
Cancer Institute of Emory University. Lash’s research
focuses on molecular biomarkers that predict cancer recurrence
and on age-related disparities in the quality of cancer care.
Honored:Tom Monath, Chief Scientific Officer of the
Infectious Disease Division at NewLink Genetics, with the
James Steele Gold-Headed Cane award of the American
Veterinary Epidemiology Society. The award is given for
career accomplishments that advance human health through
veterinary epidemiology and public health. Monath has been
involved in the development of multiple vaccines and is
currently helping to develop an Ebola vaccine.
No image
available
Honored:Dmitry Shaposhnikov, Senior Researcher, Environmental
Health Lab, Institute for Economic Forecasting, Russian
Academy of Sciences, with the Rothman Prize for the best paper
published in Epidemiology in 2014. The paper is entitled
“Mortality Related to Air Pollution with the Moscow Health
Wave and Wildfire of 2010". The award includes a $5,000 cash
prize.
Appointed:Stephen Schwartz, epidemiologist in Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, to the
National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific
Counselors—Clinical Sciences and Epidemiology.
Honored:Steven Macdonald, clinical associate professor of
epidemiology at the University of Washington School of
Public Health, with the Pumphandle Award from the Council
of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) for “extraordinary
contributions to and outstanding achievements in the field
of applied epidemiology”. According to CSTE, the
prestigious award honors a State, Local,
Territorial or Federal Epidemiologist who exemplifies
these achievements.
Died:Frederick Pei Li, professor at Harvard Medical and
Public Health Schools, on June 12 at age 75. Tracking
patterns of cancer in children with colleague Joseph
Fraumeni at NCI in the 1960’s, they uncovered a rare
cancer with a genetic basis now called Li-Fraumeni
syndrome. Li went on to do important work on genetics and
cancer and on cancer prevention strategies.
Honored:Louise Brinton, Chief of the Hormonal and
Reproductive Epidemiology Branch at NCI, with the Career
Accomplishment Award from the Society for Epidemiologic
Research at its June 2015 meeting. Career accomplishment
and leadership impact on the field are core criteria used
in selecting the awardee, according to SER.
Honored:Joseph Lyon, Professor Emeritus at the University
of Utah School of Medicine, with the Distinguished Service
to SER award. The award is given
to recognize individuals who have multiple
years of outstanding contributions to the organization.
Award winners are selected by the leadership of the
organization.
Honored:Enrique Schisterman, Senior Investigator and Chief
of the Epidemiology Branch at the Eunice Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Developmentwith the
Excellence in Education award from the SER at its June
2015 meeting. The award is given annually to an individual
who has made substantial contributions to the field of
epidemiology through one or more of mentoring, training,
and/or teaching.
Honored:Sunni Mumford, Investigator at the Eunice Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
with the Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiologist award
from the Society for Epidemiologic Research at its June
2015 meeting. The award is made for substantial
contributions to the field and likelihood of becoming a
future leader in epidemiology.
Honored:Ashley Naimi, Assistant Professor at McGill
University, with the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize Paper
award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research at its
June 2015 meeting. The award is given to recognize
outstanding postdoctoral epidemiologic research.
Honored:Hailey Banack, doctoral student at McGill, with the
Tyroler Student Prize Paper award from the Society for
Epidemiologic Research at its June 2015 meeting. It is
given to recognize the best submitted paper by a student
in a doctoral program with a concentration in
epidemiology.
Appointed:Ann Aschengrau, professor of epidemiology at Boston
University School of Public Health, as an associate editor
of the journal Environmental Health, an Open Journal with
an impact factor of 3.372 in 2014.
Honored:
Mollie Wood,
University of Massachusetts, with the Student Prize Paper
Award from the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal
Epidemiologic Research at its June 2015 meeting. Her paper
was entitled "Prenatal triptan exposure increases
externalizing behaviors at three years: results from the
Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study"
Honored:
Edwina Yeung,
Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population
Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development, with the Rising
Star award given by the Society for Pediatric and
Perinatal Epidemiologic Research at its June 2015 meeting.
This
award is to recognize early to mid-career investigators
whose achievements and potential set them on a trajectory
to become research leaders in the field of reproductive,
perinatal and pediatric epidemiology.
Honored:
Allen J. Wilcox,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, with
the Mentoring award given by the Society for Pediatric and
Perinatal Epidemiologic Research at its June 2015 meeting.
Honored:Pauline Mendola, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development with the
President’s award given by the Society for Pediatric and
Perinatal Epidemiologic Research at its June 2015 meeting.
Profiled:David Van Sickle, CEO and co-founder of Propeller
Health, called an “up and comer” company in the health
care information technology field by the publication
Healthcare Informatics. Trained as an anthropologist and
then as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at CDC,
Van Sickle created “Asthmapolis” which attaches to
inhalers and syncs wirelessly with smartphones and can
track triggers and symptoms. The company is discovering
multiple other applications that can improve individual
and public health.
Died:David Sackett, professor emeritus at McMaster
University, on May 13 at age 80. He was called “the
father or evidence-based medicine”. In a Globe and
Mail obituary, Brian Haynes, a former student
and a professor of clinical epidemiology and
biostatistics at McMaster said “David pioneered the
approach of bringing public health methods to clinical
care. He insisted that sound evidence guides practice
for the sake of the patient.” Readers who wish to read
more details about Sackett’s interesting life and
productive career can read a set of written answers
provided by Sackett to questions he received from
friends and colleagues after they learned of his
diagnosis--metastatic cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of
the bile ducts). The 103 page document is available
online at:
https://tinyurl.com/q5sd9yc
Retiring:Polly Marchbanks, epidemiologist at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, on June 30, 2015, after 30
years of distinguished public service. She was a leader in
multiple research and practice areas at CDC over the
years. Marchbanks serves as an editor of the American
Journal of Epidemiology and is a former president of the
Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER). She initiated
the first Epidemiology Late-Breaker Session at the SER
annual meeting, and chaired the session for 22 years. Her
message to colleagues at CDC upon retirement offered the
following assessment. “Looking back over the past 30
years, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity CDC gives
us to make a difference in the lives of people. I hope you
will never underestimate the importance of your work, your
contributions, and the unique part that you play in
promoting health throughout the United States and the
world.” Readers who wish to send her a note may do so at
pollymarchbanks@bellsouth.net
Hired:Siiri Bennett, a
senior research scientist and medical data consultant
in the Department of Biostatistics at the University
of Washington in Seattle as state
epidemiologist in Maine beginning July 20, 2015.
According to press reports,
Maine has
lacked a state epidemiologist since May 2014.
Honored:Nancy Glynn, with the Margaret Gloninger Service
Award for her volunteer work by the University of
Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Glynn is assistant
professor and director of the master’s program in the
Department of Epidemiology. She helped establish Epi Gives
Back, a group that offers volunteer opportunities for
students and faculty.
Appointed:Jeff Duchin, as Health Officer for the Seattle
King County Health Department, effective immediately.
Duchin has been serving at the Interim Health Officer
since January and as the Chief of the Communicable
Disease Epidemiology and Immunization Section.
Appointed:Jeff Duchin, as interim local health
officer for Public Health—Seattle & King County on
January 5. Duchin was serving as chief of the
department’s Communicable Disease Epidemiology and
Immunization Section when appointed. He will split
his time between the two positions.
Honored: Lewis
Kuller,
with the John Snow award from the American Public
Health Association at its annual meeting in 2014 in
New Orleans. According to the APHA spokesperson, Dr
Kuller was selected because of not only his enormous
body of work contributing to the field of
epidemiology, but also his impact on students and the
next generation of epidemiologists.” In accepting the
award, Kuller pointed out that “APHA’s recognition of
our work…is a testament to the skill and expertise of
our team at Pitt Public Health.”
Died:Joseph McLaughlin, 66, unexpectedly on
December 10, 2014. Dr McLaughlin was President of
the International Epidemiology Institute which he
co-founded in 1994. According to the Institute, he
led many large studies and was considered an
expert on kidney cancer. A full obituary can be
found at
http://www.iei.us/JKMbio.html
Died:David Callahan, 50, unexpectedly on January 6,
2015. He was team supervisor of Career Epidemiology
Field Officers in the Office of Public Health
Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Dr Callahan was a former
Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer. According
to the EIS Alumni Association News obituary, at the
time of his death, Dr Callahan was doing what he loved
most—guiding epidemiologists and working with state
and local partners to advance public health.
Awarded:
to Perry Hystad, Oregon State University
epidemiologist, the Early Independence Award from
the National Institutes of Health. The award is
for $250,000 a year for up to five years. Hystad
will investigate the global health impacts of air
pollution which kills an estimated 3.2 million
persons a year. He told the local media “When
people first look at this they say, ‘This can’t be
real — the numbers are too high,’” he said. “But
that’s because this is something everybody is
exposed to.”
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.”
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.
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]
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/
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.