Specialist in Tobacco Epidemiology Named Chair of Health Behavior at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Gary A. Giovino, Ph.D., a specialist in the patterns, determinates, consequences and control of tobacco use, has been named chair of the Department of Health Behavior at the University at Buffalo.

Giovino has served as interim chair of the department, part of the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions, since 2007.

Lynn Kozlowski, M.D., dean of the school of public health, said of Giovino's appointment: "As a tobacco researcher myself, I know how highly respected Gary is throughout the field of tobacco control -- nationally and internationally. In his time at UB, he also has become recognized as an effective leader who is deeply committed to the mission of public health. The school is lucky to have him."

Giovino has extensive experience in cancer research, prevention and public health. Early in his career he was a researcher at Roswell Park Cancer Institute's then Department of Cancer Control and Epidemiology. He also spent three years at the University of Rochester as a research associate in its smoking research program.

In 1988 he was hired as an epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Smoking and Health, where he spent 10 years, rising to the position of senior epidemiologist in the agency's Epidemiology Branch.

Giovino left the CDC in 1999 and returned to Roswell Park to take a position as senior research scientist in the institute's Department of Cancer Prevention, Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He became director of Roswell's Tobacco Control Research Program in 2001 and held that position until coming to UB.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Giovino earned a master's degree in natural sciences and epidemiology and a doctorate in experimental pathology and epidemiology, both from UB.

He currently is co-investigator on a $1.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to evaluate low ignition propensity cigarette legislation, and has been principal investigator on several smoking-related grants.

Giovino is principal author or co-author on more than 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He has received many professional awards, including the Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Outstanding Scientific Contribution to Public Health for work done at the CDC on the Surgeon's General Reports on Smoking and Health; the Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award from the American Society of Preventive Oncology; and the Craig Ryder Memorial Lecture and Award from the New York State Department of Health's Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control Program.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. The School of Public Health and Health Professions, the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences constitute UB's Academic Health Center. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.