Biography of the speaker
Jeremiah Stamler, MD, received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in New York in 1940 and MD degree from the State University of New York in 1943. Dr. Stamler has been on the faculty of Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine since 1958. He served as Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine until 1986, and as Professor until 1990, when he became Emeritus Professor.
Throughout his career, his research concerns have been the causation and prevention of the major adult cardiovascular diseases (CVD), particularly coronary heart disease (CHD). In previous work, Dr. Stamler served in leadership capacities in numerous Chicago, national and international studies — e.g., the Chicago Coronary Prevention Evaluation Program, the Coronary Drug Project, the National Diet-Heart Study, the Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, the Hypertension Control Program, the trial on the Primary Prevention of Hypertension, trials on aspirin and dipyridamole, the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly trial, the DASH trial on effects of dietary patterns on blood pressure, and recently, the AFCAPS/TexCAPS trial on coronary prevention with lovastatin.
Dr. Stamler’s work in population-based research began in the 1950s, and continues to the present. It involves several long-term studies — e.g., 16 cohorts worldwide studied jointly by the International Collaborative Group; 4 cohorts in China under long-term study by the PRC-USA Collaborative Study on Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Epidemiology; the INTERSALT Study on effects on blood pressure of dietary sodium, potassium, alcohol, protein, and other factors, as assessed in 52 adult population samples in 32 countries worldwide; the INTERMAP Study on macro-/micronutrients and blood pressure, involving 17 population samples of men and women ages 40-59 in China, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S.
Throughout his career Dr. Stamler has been a participant in the activities of the American Heart Association (AHA) and its Chicago Affiliate. He also has been active for years at the international level, as Chair of the Council on Epidemiology and Prevention of the International Society and Federation of Cardiology (ISFC), then as Chair of the ISFC Scientific Board. He has served as an Editor and Editorial Board member of major journals in his areas of expertise (e.g., Atherosclerosis, Circulation, Hypertension, Journal of Chronic Diseases, Journal of Human Hypertension, Preventive Medicine). He has also served on numerous expert panels and advisory groups on public policy for prevention and control of CHD-CVD, at the national and international level, e.g., for the AHA, the ISFC, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health; the World Health Organisation.
Dr. Stamler has received many awards and honors for his work. The AHA honored Dr. Stamler in 1990 when the Executive Committee of the Council in Epidemiology established the Jeremiah Stamler and Rose Stamler New Investigator Award. Other significant honours include the Donald Reid Medal from the Joint Committee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians; the National Cholesterol Award at the First National Cholesterol Conference; the James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine from the American College of Physicians and election to the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Hall of Fame.