The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) recently appointed Professors Scott Leatherdale and David Hammond as Applied Public Health Chairs for their pioneering work in youth health and chronic disease prevention. The prestigious positions, awarded only once every five years, include close to a million dollars each in funding for highly focused research programs of national relevance to public health.
Leatherdale, an expert in youth health and an advisor for provincial and national policy-makers, will use the award to further expand his project, COMPASS — the world’s largest and most comprehensive longitudinal study of youth focused on developing programs and policies to reduce the future cancer burden in Canada.
Hammond will lead a new clinical trial investigating the use of e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids, and will continue his research on nutritional labelling, caffeinated energy drinks, and medical marijuana use among Canadians.
"The number of obese children has tripled over the past 30 years, and smoking rates remain stalled at more than 4 million Canadians. Even small changes in tobacco or nutrition policies have unparalleled potential to improve population-level health.”
-David Hammond
