Dr. Gilbert Botvin Receives Presidential Award From Society For Prevention Research

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Thursday, 02 September 2010 13:12

In recognition of his lifetime contributions to the prevention sciences, the Society for Prevention Research has awarded Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin its prestigious Presidential Award.

Dr. Botvin is a professor of psychology in public health and professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior. Dr. Botvin is also president of National Health Promotion Associates Inc., which promotes evidence-based prevention and provides teacher training and technical assistance.

The award was presented to Dr. Botvin on June 3, 2010, at the annual conference of the Society for Prevention Research in Denver, Colo., by Dr. Nicholas Ialongo, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and chair of SPR's awards committee.

Dr. Botvin has an international reputation as a behavioral scientist involved in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention, and is widely recognized as an expert in the field of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention. He has been a productive researcher, publishing over 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and presenting over 200 papers and invited addresses at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Botvin has been a principal investigator on 30 federally funded prevention research projects involving over 300 schools and 40,000 students. Notable among these are several large-scale randomized trials including an NIH-funded, 10-year drug abuse prevention trial, a drug abuse and violence prevention trial with inner-city youth, and a 10-year center grant with collaborators from Columbia University focusing on drug abuse prevention with multiethnic youth.

Dr. Botvin has served as a consultant to numerous federal and state agencies and as a member of many federal expert advisory panels and NIH grant-review committees. He has served in these capacities for the National Cancer Institute; the National Institute of Drug Abuse; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention; the Center for Disease Control and Prevention; the U.S. Department of Education; and the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, among others. In 1995, Dr. Botvin was the first prevention researcher to receive a prestigious MERIT award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an award given to the most outstanding senior scientists funded by the NIH. He is also the recipient of the Society for Prevention Research's Disque Dean Award for Prevention Excellence. Finally, Dr. Botvin is a past president of the Society for Prevention Research and served as the founding editor of its journal, Prevention Science, from 2000 to 2006.

Dr. Botvin received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University (Hamilton, N.Y.) and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University (New York, N.Y.).

Source:
Society for Prevention Research
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center