Lester Breslow

Lester Breslow received his education at the University of Minnesota, earning his B.A. (1935), M.D. (1938), M.P.H. (1941) and Sc.D. (Hon.) (1988). After two years with the Minnesota Department of Health and then Military service with the seventh infantry division in World War II he joined the California Department of Public Health in 1946 to found the Bureau of Chronic Diseases. He left the Department in 1967 after serving as State Health Officer to become a professor at the UCLA School of...See more

Lester Breslow received his education at the University of Minnesota, earning his B.A. (1935), M.D. (1938), M.P.H. (1941) and Sc.D. (Hon.) (1988). After two years with the Minnesota Department of Health and then Military service with the seventh infantry division in World War II he joined the California Department of Public Health in 1946 to found the Bureau of Chronic Diseases. He left the Department in 1967 after serving as State Health Officer to become a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health, then Chairman of the UCLA Medical School's Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. Thereafter, he served as Dean, UCLA School of Public Health (1972-1980), following which he retired but has continued public health activity to the present time, 2004. Dr. Breslow has been President of the International Epidemiology Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Association of Schools of public Health; he is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He has received the Lasker Award, Sedgwick Medal of the American Public Health Association, Dana Award, Healthtrac Award, and the Lienhard Award of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Breslow has served as Director of Studies for President Truman's Commission on Health Needs of the Nation, the University of California's Health Plan Grading System, and the National Cancer Institute's report on Cancer Control Objectives for the Nation 1985-2000. He initiated California's chronic disease control program and the Human Population Laboratory including its health studies in Alameda County, and played a leading role in California's tobacco control program. He was the founding editor of the "Annual Review of Public Health" and editor-in-chief of the "Encyclopedia of Public Health." See less