Neal Benowitz
Neal Benowitz, MD, a professor at University of California, San Francisco, has been recognized by the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT).
Benowitz received the 2006 Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics, which honors individual scientists for their outstanding contributions in drug research, patient care and teaching at the ASCPT annual meeting on March 11 in Baltimore. Benowitz gave a lecture titled "Clinical Pharmacology in Service of Public Health: Nicotine Addiction and Its Treatment."
A professor of medicine, psychiatry and biopharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy, Benowitz has devoted the majority of his career to research nicotine and tobacco. He is chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, vice chair of the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences and co-leader of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF. He is also the leader of the Tobacco Control Program of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Benowitz studies the human pharmacology of nicotine, including nicotine addiction. Nicotine addiction sustains tobacco use, which is the major preventable cause of premature death and disability in the world. Benowitz's thesis has been that understanding the pharmacology of nicotine would provide insights into effective means of treating and preventing tobacco-related disease. In recent years, he has studied the effects of secondhand smoke exposure on humans.
Benowitz also has been active in the public health arena, attempting to apply his basic research findings to public policy issues. He has made key policy proposals on regulating the nicotine content of cigarettes and on issues of labeling yields of cigarettes. Benowitz was senior scientific editor of the 1988 US Surgeon General's Report, "Nicotine Addiction." This report has become the benchmark document that has established nicotine addiction as the determinant of tobacco use and has been used a blueprint around the world in developing tobacco control policies.
Benowitz began his education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and earned his MD degree at the University of Rochester's School of Medicine. He was an intern at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center before starting his career at UCSF.
Benowitz is a member of more than a dozen professional organizations and has been a member of ASCPT for more than 25 years, having served as its president from 1996 to 1997.
The Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award is named for Washington, DC, physician Oscar Benwood Hunter Sr., whose father and grandfather were also physicians. Hunter was an active ASCPT member who held the offices of secretary and president.
Members of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics are leading the development of new drugs and defining best practices for drug usage. Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, ASCPT was founded in 1900 and has 2,000 members worldwide.
Source: Lisa Cisneros
