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VOICES in EPIDEMIOLOGY

VOICES is a project of the journal to provide personal, historical, and scientific perspectives on the field of epidemiology, as seen through the eyes of the field's most senior and accomplished practitioners.
A Conversation with John Pemberton
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 63:47
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 17(4):479-482, July 2006
As a physician interested in the social determinants of health, John Pemberton began his research career with a study in England of childhood nutrition in 1930s. He later explored such topics as air pollution, coronary artery disease and lung disease. Dr. Pemberton is best known for co-founding the International Epidemiology Association and for his devotion to social and environmental health issues. He died in 2010 at the age of 97.
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A Conversation with Jean Golding
Creator: Nadja Vielot
Duration: 43:27
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 25(1):147-151, January 2014
Jean Golding is probably best known for her ALSPAC study (“Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children”), a cohort study that enrolled nearly 15,000 pregnant women in the early 1990’s and continues to follow the health of the mothers and their children. Though she retired from her duties as study director in 2006, Dr. Golding continues an active research program in genetic and environmental risk factors for behavioral and neurocognitive outcomes. Dr. Golding also launched the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, and served as editor-in-chief for 25 years.
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A Conversation with Brian MacMahon
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 34:28
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 15(4):504-508, July 2004
Brian MacMahon was a chronic disease epidemiologist who served for 30 years as head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. His textbook, Epidemiology: Principles and Methods, written with Thomas Pugh, was the first modern epidemiology textbook and stood for many years as a standard in the field. Dr. MacMahon died in 2007 at the age of 85.
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A Conversation with D.A. Henderson
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 39:49
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 16(2):266-269, March 2005
Donald Ainslie Henderson is best known for his administrative and surveillance work. He served as the director of both the CDC and WHO smallpox eradication programs in the 1960s, dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in the 1970s and 80s, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Principal Science Adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services in the 1990s. In 2001, Dr. Henderson was appointed Director of the Office of Public Health Emergency Prepardness, where he continues to serve an advisory role.
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A Conversation with Jack Schull
Creator: Nadja Vielot
Duration: 30:57
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 15(1):118-122, January 2004
Jack Schull was an early pioneer in the study of human genetics, and was one of the lead investigators in the follow-up of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, which established the effects of ionizing radiation on cancer risk in humans. In 1972 he founded the Center for Demographic and Poulation Genetics at the University of Texas at Houston, where he currently serves as Professor Emeritus.
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A Conversation with Mervyn Susser
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 83:57
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 14(6):748-752, November 2003
Mervyn Susser developed a passion for public health during his service as a physician in a South African community clinic. He came to the US in 1966, where he has served as the chair of Columbia University’s Epidemiology Department and Editor of the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Susser’s lifelong commitment to public health has focused primarily on reproductive, developmental and psychiatric epidemiology, with interests also in public health history and epidemiologic methods. Dr. Susser and his wife, Zena Stein remain devoted advocates for population health in the US and South Africa.
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A Conversation with Lester Breslow
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 67:47
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 16(3):410-413, May 2005
In addition to studying social, occupational, and environmental causes of lung cancer and coronary heart disease, Dr. Lester Breslow made extensive contributions to more general public health topics such as aging, chronic disease prevention, health policy, and health measurement and monitoring. Dr. Breslow served as the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles, and was a member of the Institute of Medicine.
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A Conversation with Jerry Morris
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 57:15
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 15(6):770-773, November 2004
Dr. Morris, a British epidemiologist and physician, was the first to identify a link between exercise and heart health. He did so in a 1940s study of heart attack incidence in London bus drivers and conductors and later corroborated his findings in other occupational cohorts.
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A Conversation with Leonard Syme
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 38:12
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 22(6):867-871, November 2011
Dr. Syme began his career in the 1960s as a medical sociologist with an interest in coronary heart disease and has since established himself as one of the first social epidemiologists. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley, where his research focuses on social determinants of health and community interventions.
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A Conversation with Warren Winkelstein, Jr.
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 85:28
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 15(3):368-372, May 2004
During his 60-year career, Warren Winkelstein studied topics ranging from diphtheria and the early polio vaccine to coronary heart disease, cervical cancer, air pollution, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Winkelstein was also a historian, and wrote a series of historical vignettes for EPIDEMIOLOGY. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley from 1968-2012. Dr. Winkelstein passed away in July 2012.
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A Conversation with Frank Speizer
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 46:19
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 22(3):438-442, May 2011
Dr. Speizer founded Harvard’s research program in the epidemiology of chronic diseases. He is responsible for initiating both the Nurses’ Health Study and the Harvard Six Cities Study, two revolutionary and enduring prospective cohort studies. In his current research, Dr. Speizer focuses on the health effects of acute and chronic exposures to indoor and outdoor air pollutants.
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A Conversation with Jacob Brody
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 62:41
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 19(5):756-759, September 2008
Dr. Brody’s career began in the 1950s, when he made important contributions to the study of encephalitis, malaria, poliomyelitis and later rubella. His more recent research interests include aging, long-term care and prevention and postponement of disease.
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A Conversation with Henry Blackburn
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 33:34
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 19(3):513-517, May 2008
Henry Blackburn is a Professor Emeritus in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, where he has worked since 1956. His research focus has been cardiovascular disease risk factors, surveillance, and prevention, and (in retirement) the history of cardiovascular disease epidemiology. Dr. Blackburn is also a jazz musician who graciously provided the soundtrack for the VOICES interviews.
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A Conversation with George W. Comstock
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 56:16
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 14(5):623-627, September 2003
George Comstock began his career with the study of TB – an interest he maintained even as his research later expanded into cancer and cardiovascular disease. He served for two decades in the US Public Health Service, and then joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1962, where he established and directed the school’s field training center in Hagerstown, Maryland. He was Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Epidemiology from 1979 until 1988. He remained an active researcher until his death in 2007 at the age of 92.
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A Conversation with Margaret Becklake
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 36:05
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 15(2):245-249, March 2004
Dr. Becklake trained in medicine in South Africa and the United Kingdom, where she specialized in pulmonary physiology. She began her work in epidemiology in the 1950s as the physiologist for South Africa’s Miners’ Medical Bureau, studying lung function in gold miners. Since joining McGill’s Epidemiology and Health Department in 1967, Margaret has devoted her career to studying environmental and occupational determinants of childhood and adult airway disease, in particular the lung health of asbestos miners and millers.
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A Conversation with Olli Miettinen - Part 1
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 66:18
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 23(3):495-499, May 2012
Olli Miettinen invigorated epidemiologic theory with key publications during the 1960s and 70s. These papers introduced novel approaches to study design, effect estimation, and causal inference that have become part of modern epidemiologic methods. Dr. Miettinen is a respected teacher of epidemiologic theory and has made substantial contributions to cardiovascular disease epidemiology and cancer screening.
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A Conversation with Olli Miettinen - Part 2
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 50:02
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 23(3):495-499, May 2012
Olli Miettinen invigorated epidemiologic theory with key publications during the 1960s and 70s. These papers introduced novel approaches to study design, effect estimation, and causal inference that have become part of modern epidemiologic methods. Dr. Miettinen is a respected teacher of epidemiologic theory and has made substantial contributions to cardiovascular disease epidemiology and cancer screening.
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A Conversation with Zena Stein
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 66:34
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 14(4):498-501, July 2003
Dr. Stein joined the Columbia University School of Public Health in 1966 after completing medical school in South Africa and psychiatry training in the United Kingdom. While her original work focused on mental retardation, she is best known as the one of the founders of perinatal epidemiology, and for her pioneering research on the role of women in the HIV epidemic.
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A Conversation with Sir Richard Doll
Creator: Katie O’Brien
Duration: 32:00
Epidemiology Epidemiology. 14(3):375-379, May 2003
Doll is best known for his pioneering work in uncovering the link between smoking and lung cancer. His contributions also include seminal studies on radiation and leukemia, asbestos and lung cancer, and alcohol and breast cancer. Doll is the person most often named by other VOICES interviewees as the most influential epidemiologist of their era. Sir Richard died in 2005 at the age of 92.
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