Robert Wallace, Noted Physician, Epidemiologist to Present 2010 Saxon Graham Lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Robert Wallace, MD, Irene Ensminger Stecher professor of epidemiology and internal medicine at the University of Iowa and director of the university's Center on Aging, will present the University at Buffalo's 2010 Saxon Graham Lecture on Friday, April 16, at noon in 144 Farber Hall on UB's South Campus.

The title of his talk is "What Can Evolution Teach Us About Prevention?" The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by UB's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, part of the School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Wallace received his MD degree from Northwestern University in 1967 and earned a masters degree in epidemiology from UB in 1972 while on a Centers for Disease Control assignment at the university.

Wallace has conducted extensive research in clinical and population epidemiology, with a focus on the causes and prevention of disabling conditions among older persons, including fracture, cancer and coronary disease.

He is site principal investigator for University of Iowa's Women's Health Initiative clinical center, a national intervention trial exploring the prevention of breast and colon cancer and coronary disease. UB is one of the WHI's Vanguard Clinic Centers.

He also is a co-principal investigator of the Health and Retirement Study, a national cohort investigation of the health and economic status of older Americans.

Wallace served on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, is current chair of IOM's Board on the Health of Select Populations, and past chair of IOM's Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

He is the author or co-author of more than 300 publications and 22 book chapters, and is the editor of four books, including the current edition of Maxcy-Rosenau-Last's Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

The event is part of the Saxon Graham Lectureship series. Graham, an accomplished epidemiologist, chaired UB's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine from 1981 to 1991. He is known for his important contributions to the understanding of the impact of diet on cancer, many of which were based on studying dietary habits of Western New Yorkers. The department continues Graham's legacy of using epidemiologic tools to investigate the causes and prevention of diseases in human populations in Western New York and elsewhere.