SPHHP professor emeritus to receive Distinguished Alumni Award

"I am pleased to announce that Gary Giovino will be recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award for our school. Most of us at SPHHP know that Gary has been an accomplished and tireless researcher, teacher and advocate for many years. As his biography demonstrates, he is well deserving of this honor. I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating him," said Jean Wactawski-Wende, PhD, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Giovino is an epidemiologist who focuses primarily on behavioral issues. His research interests have included patterns, determinants, consequences and control of tobacco use, which are part of a more general focus on disease prevention and health promotion. As a SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus in SPHHP, he continues to study possible relationships between suboptimal nutrition and addictions, particularly nicotine addiction. 

Following his doctoral training at UB, Giovino worked as a research associate at the University of Rochester, where he co-led the evaluation of one of the nation’s first successful telephone quit lines. He joined the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he served as chief of the Epidemiology Branch during most of the 1990s. There, he became the federal government’s lead scientist on tobacco surveillance. Subsequently, he conducted tobacco surveillance and evaluation work at local, national and international levels. 

From 1999 until 2006, Giovino served as senior research scientist in the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. After moving to UB in 2006, he served as chair of the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior and associate dean for faculty affairs in SPHHP. 

Giovino has authored or co-authored 268 scientific publications and delivered 77 invited presentations. He has been awarded the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Doll/Wynder Award for research in tobacco epidemiology from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and the Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award from the American Society of Preventive Oncology.  

Thurs., Oct. 17
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

500 Pearl
500 Pearl Street
Buffalo, N.Y. 14202

Click here for additional event information or to purchase tickets.