George A. Kaplan, PhD

George A. Kaplan, Ph.D., Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health and professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, and research professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, will retire from active faculty status on August 31, 2009.

Professor Kaplan received his B.A. degree from The Johns Hopkins University in 1964 and his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1968. He pursued postdoctoral training at the San Francisco and Berkeley campuses of the University of California from 1978-81, and was chief of the human population laboratory in the California Department of Health Services from 1981-1997. He joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1997 as professor of epidemiology, chair of the Department of Epidemiology, and senior research scientist at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. In 2003, he completed his term as chair and was appointed Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health.

Within the School of Public Health, Professor Kaplan was director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health and of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program. A leading authority on social epidemiology, he has published over 200 papers on the role of behavioral, social, psychological, and socioeconomic factors in health and health inequalities. A major theme in his work is the role of "upstream" and "downstream" factors in maintaining health, delaying disease, improving function, and linking social and biological determinants of disease. In recognition of his significant contributions as a social epidemiologist, Professor Kaplan was the first public health scientist to be invited to address the Nobel forum at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden in 2000. His numerous awards include the Patricia Barchas Award in Sociophysiology and the John P. McGovemrn Award. He was elected to the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research 1998, the Institute of Medicine in 2001, the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2003, and was president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research in 2003-04.

The Regents now salute this distinguished teacher and scholar by naming George A. Kaplan Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health emeritus, professor emeritus of epidemiology, and research professor emeritus.