Title: Epidemiology Section Recognizes Achievement in Awards Session
Author:
Section/SPIG: Epidemiology
Issue Date:
Epidemiology Section Recognizes Achievement in Awards Session
By Robert E. McKeown, PhD
The John Snow Award recognizes an outstanding epidemiologist for excellence in epidemiologic practice or research. The criteria for selection of this award include having made contributions of enduring value to the improvement of human health or substantial reduction in burden of disease; being responsible for innovations in public health practice based on clear epidemiologic foundations or implementation of epidemiologic approaches to solution of health problems; and having made contributions which are practical, explicit and applied, rather than theoretical or implicit.
This year's recipient of the John Snow Award was James W. Curran, MD, MPH, Dean, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research. He began his career at CDC in 1971 working as a researcher in sexually transmitted diseases. He was director of various HIV / AIDS related programs or divisions at CDC from 1982 to 1995, when he became Dean at Rollins SPH. Of special note this year was that the award was also accompanied by greetings from Nichola Wilkins, Executive Director of the Royal Institute for Public Health, home of the John Snow Society. Wilkins presented Dr. Curran with a membership in the John Snow Society and presented a copy of Spence Galbraith’s book John Snow (1813-1858) - His Early Years to the Epidemiology Section.
The Abraham Lilienfeld Award recognizes excellence in the teaching of epidemiology during the course of a career. The criteria for selection of this award include demonstrating excellence in teaching as exhibited in effective classroom lectures, professional seminars or workshops, publications of substantial pedagogical or methodological import for students and professional epidemiologists, or by mentoring students who have made worthwhile contributions to the improvement of public health.
The recipient of the Abraham Lilienfeld Award for 2003 was Ross C. Brownson, PhD, Chair of the Department of Community Health, Saint Louis University School of Public Health. Brownson received his PhD in environmental epidemiology from Colorado State University, after which he went to the Missouri Department of Health where, in 1988 be was named Director of the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In 1994 he became Director of the Prevention Research Center, Director of the Division of Epidemiology, and chair of the Department of Community Health at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. In addition to his extensive publication on epidemiologic research in scholarly journals, he is one of the editors of APHA’s book, Chronic Disease Epidemiology: Prevention and Control, now in its second edition, a new book titled Evidence-Based Public Health, as well as Applied Epidemiology: Theory to Practice, Community-Based Prevention: Programs that Work, and Communicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners. He is known not only as a public health advocate and practitioner dedicated to applying epidemiologic research to pressing public health problems, but also as an effective and caring mentor and teacher.
The Wade Hampton Frost Lectureship Award recognizes a person who has made a significant contribution to addressing a public health issue of major importance by applying epidemiologic principles and methods. The criteria for selection of this award include having demonstrated intellectual innovation in epidemiology or in the application of epidemiology to public health problems; having demonstrated leadership in public health as indicated by leadership roles in professional organizations, government agencies, academic institutions or in the private sector; and being an engaging and substantive speaker.
The Wade Hampton Frost Lecture in 2003 was presented by Janet R. Daling, PhD, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health; and in the Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her presentation “Hormone Replacement Therapy and Breast Cancer, An Evolving Story” presented an intriguing and illuminating look at the history of research on the association between HRT and breast cancer and placed recent controversies and findings in a new context for the audience. Dr. Daling received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington and has spent her subsequent professional career there, serving as Chair, Seattle Breast Cancer Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1998-2000. In addition to more than 300 publications, book chapters, proceedings and abstracts, Daling is widely known for her course in epidemiologic analysis and her mentoring of students and junior faculty.
In addition to these awards to professional epidemiologists, the Epidemiology Section once again presented Student Awards for papers and posters presented by students in Epi Section sponsored sessions at the Annual Meeting. This year prizes were awarded to the following students:
$500 awards were presented to:
David L. Buckeridge for his presentation “A modular approach to space–time surveillance of multiple disease categories: application to bioterrorism surveillance using 911 data”
Sharon K. Greene for her presentation “Modeling the Influence of Climate Variability on Influenza A Epidemic Patterns”
Anne Jurek for her poster “Nondifferential Exposure Misclassification Does Not Always Lead to an Underestimate of Risk”
Arlene M. Keddie for her poster “Associations between parental education and prevalence of congenital heart defects among whites, blacks and Hispanics”
Related Files:
ACF32D1.pdf