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News Release

2002 convocation and faculty awards
April 29, 2002 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

During convocation ceremonies held in Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater on Friday, April 26, 328 members of the School of Public Health Class of 2002 received master’s and doctoral degrees. Alumnus John Henshaw, MPH ’74, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), delivered the commencement address.

Matthew Boulton, clinical associate professor of epidemiology, received the 2002 Excellence in Teaching Award. George A. Kaplan, professor of epidemiology and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, received the 2002 Excellence in Research Award.

2002 Excellence in Teaching Award: Matthew L. Boulton

In presenting this year’s Excellence in Teaching Award to Matthew Boulton, Christine Atkinson, co-chair of the Public Health Student Association, made the following remarks:

I could call the recipient of this year’s award by one of many titles. For now I will use the title of owner of three dogs, a flock of chickens, and beautiful Shire draft horse named Kathy. Now you may be wondering, why did she choose a more everyday title rather than an academic one? Well, simply put, it is because excellence in teaching extends beyond the classroom walls, above the knowledge learned by reading books and articles, and into an arena that we call life. Dr. Matthew L. Boulton has been able to bridge the worlds of theory and practice in a way that goes well beyond the usual rhetoric. Now, I could stand up here and recite the many reasons why Dr. Boulton has won this award, but I will instead let the words of his students and colleagues speak for themselves:

"He has demonstrated his commitment to training the next generation of public health workers"
"Matt has aggressively pursued the creation of learning opportunities for students and has arranged dozens of placements for students in various public health agencies after they have graduated"
"I hope I never forget all of the little details I have learned in the class because I feel so strongly that everything I learned was useful"
"Dr. Boulton is the best teacher I have ever had"
"Matt is not just a program director and an instructor, but he’s been a mentor too"
"His energy and dynamism are contagious"
"Thank you Dr. Boulton"

Dr. Matt Boulton is a clinical associate professor of public health, a developer of the preventive medicine residency program, the leader of the statewide bioterrorism task force, the chief epidemiologist for the state of Michigan, a physician, a farmer, and most importantly an accomplished professor who has brought the world of public health to our fingertips in many, many ways. It is with great honor that I present the 2002 School of Public health excellence in teaching award to Dr. Matthew L. Boulton.

2002 Excellence in Research Award: George A. Kaplan

In presenting this year’s Excellence in Research Award to George A. Kaplan, Kenneth Stewart, a representative of Queers in Public Health Alliance Against Bigotry, made the following remarks:

George Kaplan is a social epidemiologist who is internationally renowned for his research on the role of behavioral, social, psychological, and socioeconomic factors in disease prevention and health promotion. His work is frequently cited in illustration of the importance of “upstream” and “downstream” factors in maintaining health, delaying disease, and improving function for individual and population health.

Professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Dr. Kaplan is a senior research scientist at the Institute for Social Research and the founding director of the Michigan Initiative on Inequalities in Health. He is a docent at the University of Kuopio in Finland, and an associate in the Population Health Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Dr. Kaplan is also a frequent consultant for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the National Academy of Sciences, and he was recently elected a member of the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Kaplan and his colleagues have detailed the cumulative cost of socioeconomic disadvantage on the health and functional outcomes in the elderly, and the role of equity in the distribution of income on the overall health of populations. Both areas of research are directed at establishing the close linkage between economic policy and health policy. He and colleagues have also made important contributions in demonstrating the importance of behavioral and psychosocial factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and its consequences; they published the first studies on long-term predictors of both successful aging and frailty.

Some of their most recent publications include:

Socioeconomic Position Across the Life Course and Cognitive Function in Late Middle Life
Income Inequality, the Psychosocial Environment, and Health: Comparisons of Wealthy Nations
Comparative Impact of Hearing and Vision Impairment on Subsequent Functioning
Psychosocial Predictors of Hypertension in Men and Women

To quote a faculty colleague, “Dr. Kaplan is a tireless promoter of clear and creative thinking, careful yet sophisticated analysis, cautious and rigorous interpretation. His standards are the highest and his intellect spans a wide range of cross-disciplinary scholarship in public health”.

Contact: Terri Mellow, Director, Office of Communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu