 | | Surgeon General Richard Carmona (left) and Jonathan Samet at awards ceremony. |
Jonathan Samet, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, was awarded the Surgeon General’s Medallion, the highest honor bestowed by the Surgeon General. The award was presented by Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona on July 13, 2006, at the 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Washington, D.C. Samet received the award for his work as senior scientific editor of the Report of the Surgeon General on the Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke, which was released on June 27, 2006. Samet was also honored by the Global Smokefree Partnership for exceptional contribution for increasing our knowledge about the dangers of secondhand smoke. The Global Smokefree Partnership is a new multi-partner initiative formed to promote effective smoke-free air policies worldwide. Its members include the American Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Global Tobacco Control. This was the Global Smokefree Partnership Award’s inaugural year. Uruguay’s president, Tabare Vasquez, also received an award at the Conference for outstanding political leadership in making his country the first smoke-free nation in the Americas. Q&A with Jonathan Samet |
