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In Memoriam: Sir Richard Doll, First Epidemiologist to Confirm the Link Between Smoking and Lung Cancer and the First Recipient of the C-E.A. Winslow Medal

Sir Richard Doll, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and Yale School of Public Health's (YSPH) first recipient of the C-E.A. Winslow Medal, passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2005. He was the foremost epidemiologist of the twentieth century and is best known for his research establishing the correlation between smoking and lung cancer.

Sir Richard was born William Richard Shaboe Doll in London in 1912. He attended Westminster School, graduated from St. Thomas's Medical School in 1937, and then served with the Royal Army Medical Corps. After the war, he returned to St. Thomas's to research asthma. Shortly thereafter, he joined Central Middlesex Hospital and became a member of the Medical Research Council.

In the late 1940s, Doll was asked by the Medical Research Council to discover why the number of lung cancer diagnoses had risen sharply in Britain. Initially, Doll believed the increase in lung cancer diagnoses was either due to car exhaust fumes or to the tar on the roads. As he and Council colleagues interviewed hundreds of lung cancer patients, Doll discovered that of the 649 cases, only two people interviewed were non-smokers. His research and paper, confirming the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, resulted in a press conference from Britain's Minister of Health, Ianin Macleod, in 1954. He stated, "It must be regarded as established that there is a relationship between smoking and cancer of the lung." In 1954, 80% of adults in Britain smoked. Today, that figure is down to 26%. Karen Hudmon, Assistant Professor in YSPH's division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology (CDE) and researcher of tobacco use and dependence, commented on Doll's importance in epidemiology, "It is a rare occasion when a researcher can, within the course of his or her own lifetime, both open and close the book on a research question of such profound public health importance as the link between smoking and cancer. Sir Richard Doll's pioneering research has," said Hudmon, "perhaps more so than any other epidemiologist of his time, altered the landscape of disease prevention and consequently saved millions of lives worldwide."

Doll went on to Oxford University in 1969, where he was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine. From 1970-1971, he served as president of the Royal Society. He was knighted Sir Richard Doll in 1971 and became Companion of Honour in 1996 for services of national importance.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Dr. John Hood, stated that Sir Richard's epidemiological work was pioneering and that his "enormous contribution to medicine globally, and within Oxford, cannot be understated". Sir Richard studied not only cancer, but heart disease, the effects of alcohol on unborn babies, side effects of the birth control pill, and demonstrated that all radiation, even in small amounts, is harmful. He continued to work up until this year.

Sir Richard Doll was YSPH's first recipient of the C-E.A. Winslow Medal in 2000. The Winslow Medal was established to celebrate the career of the founder of YSPH, Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, considered by many to be the "father of public health". The Winslow Medal celebrates Winslow's special relationship to the school and commemorates his visionary legacy, the defining ethical precepts which guide the public health profession. "When the Yale School of Public Health created the Winslow Medal, the highest award it offers, it was immediately obvious that the first recipient should be Richard Doll," said Michael B. Bracken, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology in CDE, colleague and friend of Doll. "Not many can claim, as he can, to have conducted research that saved tens of millions of people from premature death," said Bracken. He went on to say that Doll's research papers were "a model of clarity" and should be "required reading for all students of epidemiology". Derek Yach, Professor and Head of the Division of Global Health in YSPH, highlighted the global impact of Doll's work. "Sir Richard Doll supported and inspired epidemiologists worldwide to repeat his UK studies and demonstrate that where ever people smoked like (the British)–they would die like them. In many ways the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted by all countries in 2003, and its emerging impact on reducing tobacco use, is a testament to his work", said Yach.

Sir Richard Doll is predeceased by his wife, Dr. Joan Faulkner, and survived by their son and daughter.