Project Investigator Biography

Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H. Harvard University School of Public Health 677 Huntington Avenue Landmark Building, 3rd Floor East Boston, MA 02115 phone: (617) 495-4000/(617) 496-1026 fax: (617) 495-8543 email: hkoh@hsph.harvard.edu

Dr. Howard K. Koh is the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, and Director of the Division of Public Health Practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also serves as Director of the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness. Dr. Koh received his M.D. from Yale University and M.P.H. from Boston University School of Public Health.

From 1997 through 2003, Dr. Koh served as Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, appointed by Governor William Weld. An accomplished physician, advocate, scholar, and healer, Dr. Koh has been recognized for his interdisciplinary leadership in public health. He has published more than 200 articles in the medical literature and is nationally known in the areas of cancer prevention, tobacco control, Asian-American health issues, and skin oncology (melanoma and cutaneous lymphoma). In addition, he has served as Principal Investigator on numerous medical research grants funded by the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Dr. Koh has received the Drs. Jack E. White/LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., Cancer Prevention Award from the American Association for Cancer Research and the Intercultural Cancer Council, as well as the national Distinguished Service Award from the American Cancer Society. In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Koh to a term on the National Cancer Advisory Board.