Samet Receives International Public Health Award (web article)

Jonathan Samet, MD, the Jacob I and Irene B. Fabrikant Professor of Health, Risk and Society, and the chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will receive the 2004 Prince Mahidol Award for public health. Dr. Samet, who is also the director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, is being recognized for his research into the effect of air pollution on human health. His work has been part of the basis for air quality control in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Jonathan Samet, MD

“This is an honor for me and the many colleagues who have worked with me on the challenging problem of air pollution and health. The Prince Mahidol Award is a wonderful recognition of our work and also an indication that air pollution remains a global public health problem,” said Dr. Samet.

The prize, which consists of an award plaque and $50,000, will be presented to Dr. Samet at a ceremony in Bangkok on January 27, 2005.

Norman Sartorius, MD, PhD, a former director of the World Health Organization’s Division of Mental Health and a University of Geneva psychiatrist, will receive the 2004 Prince Mahidol Award in medicine for his contribution to the founding of treatment guidelines for mental patients.

The Prince Mahidol Award Foundation selected Drs. Samet and Sartorius from 58 nominees from 27 countries. The Foundation is chaired by Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and was established on January 1, 1992, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songkla— the late Prince Father, who is recognized as the “Father of Thai Medicine.”

Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, received the Prince Mahidol Award in 1997 for his discovery that vitamin A deficiency was responsible for widespread morbidity and mortality among children throughout the developing world.