Researchers honoured with Statistical Society of Canada's Lise Manchester Award
Geoffrey Fong and David Hammond of the School of Public Health and Health Systems and Mary Thompson, Distinguished Professor Emerita in Statistics and Actuarial Science, are the 2012 recipients of the Lise Manchester Award.
This biennial award is given by the Statistical Society of Canada in commemoration of the late Dr. Lise Manchester’s abiding interest in using statistical methods to study matters of relevance to society. The award recognizes excellence in statistical research which considers problems of public interest and which is potentially useful for formation of Canadian public policy.
This year’s award is given to Professors Fong, Hammond and Thompson for their work on the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC) Project. Tobacco use is the world’s most prevalent cause of death and disease, and is projected by the World Health Organization to kill one billion people in the 21st century.
The ITC Project was created in 2002 by an international consortium of researchers, led by Geoffrey Fong and centered at the University of Waterloo, to conduct the first-ever longitudinal cohort study of tobacco use. The objective of the ITC Project is to evaluate the impact of tobacco control policies of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which was adopted in 2003 to directly combat the tobacco epidemic and has been ratified by more than 170 countries.
Since its inception, the ITC Project has conducted extensive cohort surveys in 20 countries, inhabited by over 50% of the world’s population and 70% of the world’s tobacco users. It is the first and only international research effort that focuses on measuring the impact of FCTC policies.
See full citation at the Statistical Society of Canada website.