Susan Sacks and Joseph Lynn Lyon Distinguished Service to SER

The Distinguished Service to SER award is given to recognize individuals who have multiple years of outstanding contributions to the organization. Award winners are selected by the leadership of the organization.

Susan Sacks - Bio

Susan received her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of California-Berkeley. She also has a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and a Masters degree in Biostatistics from UCLA. Read more

Joseph Lynn Lyon - Bio

Joseph Lynn Lyon was a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He received his B.S. and M.D. degree from University of Utah, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Read more

2025 Award Winner – David Savitz

David Savitz is Professor of Epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health, with joint appointments in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics in the Alpert Medical School. His epidemiological research has addressed a wide range of public health issues focusing on health effects of environmental agents in the workplace and community and a wide range of reproductive health outcomes. He has done extensive work on health effects of nonionizing radiation, pesticides, drinking water treatment by-products, and perfluorinated compounds. His reproductive health research has focused on preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, pregnancy complications, and miscarriage. Read more

sjames Sherman A. James is the Susan B. King Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. He also held secondary professorships, at Duke, in Sociology, Community and Family Medicine, and African and African American Studies. Prior to Duke, he taught in the epidemiology departments at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1973-89) and at the University of Michigan (1989-03). At Michigan, he was the John P. Kirscht Collegiate Professor of Public Health, the Founding Director of the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH), Chair of the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and a Senior Research Scientist in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research. Read more

2023 Award Winner – Mary Haan

Mary Haan works at the University of California, San Francisco

2022 Award Winner – George Kaplan

George A. Kaplan, Ph.D. is the Thomas Francis Collegiate Emeritus Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, a Research Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Social Research, Founder and former Director of the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, all at the University of Michigan. He was Chair of the Department of Epidemiology from 1996-2003. He is also Senior Advisor for the Scholars and Fellows Programs at The Institute for Integrative Health in Baltimore.

Among his honors are elected membership in the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Social Insurance, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and presidency of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Professor Kaplan was also the first public health scientist to be invited to address the Nobel Forum at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Read more

2021 Award Winner – Allen Wilcox

Allen Wilcox is an Emeritus Investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham NC, where he has spent his career. His research has focused on fertility and the events of pregnancy, and he is the author of a textbook on this topic. He served for ten years as the Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at NIEHS, and for 14 years as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Epidemiology. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan, his PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, and an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Bergen in Norway. He has been attending SER meetings since 1979.

2020 Award Winner – Moyses Szklo

Dr. Moyses Szklo is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He received his MD degree from the State University of Rio de Janeiro and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is University Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine (Cardiology) at the Johns Hopkins University, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the American Journal of Epidemiology, and director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Summer Institute of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Sandro Galea, a physician, epidemiologist, and author, is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published more than 800 scientific journal articles, 50 chapters, and 13 books, and his research has been featured extensively in current periodicals and newspapers.

Dr. Julie E. Buring is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health.

The primary focus of her research is the epidemiology of chronic diseases, primarily cardiovascular disease and cancer, and especially among women. Dr. Buring has been involved in the design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of a number of large-scale cohort studies and randomized clinical trials.

Polly Marchbanks received a BSN and MSN from The University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD in epidemiology from The University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

In 1984, while presenting dissertation results at her first SER annual meeting, Polly was recruited to CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a two-year post-doctoral program in applied epidemiology. She entered the EIS in 1985 and later became the first woman and first non-physician to serve as Chief of the EIS. Read more
While Chief, Polly led the training of EIS Officers and supervised the administration of over 300 epidemic aid missions that helped control public health emergencies around the world, including hantavirus in the southwestern US, E. coli O157:H7 from undercooked hamburgers at a fast food restaurant chain, cryptosporidiosis in the Milwaukee water supply which sickened 400,000 persons, devastation from Hurricane Andrew, and a massive refugee crisis in Burundi.
Polly’s 30-year career at CDC spanned a broad range of topics, and her central focus was research and translation activities in the field of women’s health. As Team Leader of Fertility Epidemiology Studies in the Division of Reproductive Health, she was a Principal Investigator of the NICHD Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study, a member of the Oxford Collaborative Groups on Reproductive Cancer, a technical advisor to WHO on contraceptive issues, and a leader in the development and implementation of global and domestic evidence-based family planning guidelines which are used in over 50 countries globally and have changed contraceptive practice in the United States.
Polly has taught epidemiology in Zimbabwe, Romania, Moldova, Republic of Georgia, China, South Africa, and Ghana. She authored over 160 scientific publications and is an elected member of the American Epidemiological Society. She received multiple CDC awards including the Shepard Science Award, the Shepard Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award, the Watson Medal of Excellence, and two Distinguished Service Medals from the US Public Health Service. She is also the recipient of the John Snow Award from the Epidemiology Section of APHA in conjunction with the John Snow Society and Royal Society for Public Health in England.
In 2015, Polly retired from CDC. She is continuing to collaborate on research and translation projects, and she is continuing to serve as an Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Throughout the years, Polly has been an active member of SER. She served as a Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee, a local host for the annual meeting, and President. In 1992, she proposed to the SER Board an idea for adding a Late-Breaker Session to the annual meeting. The proposal was accepted and, starting in 1993, she coordinated and chaired the SER Late-Breaker Session for 22 years. In 2015, the baton for the Late-Breaker Session passed to other capable hands, and the session continues to be an integral part of the SER annual meeting.

2015 Award Winner – Joseph Lynn Lyon

Joseph Lynn Lyon is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He received his B.S. and M.D. degree from University of Utah, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

He has published over 140 articles in the peered reviewed scientific literature. He has been the recipient of 29 grants and contracts, mostly from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has served as a reviewer for a number of scientific journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Associationand the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Dr. Lyon has served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the SER for more than 20 years.

2014 Award Winner – Susan Sacks

Susan received her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of California-Berkeley. She also has a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and a Masters degree in Biostatistics from UCLA.

Susan served for ten years as both Director and Global Head of the Epidemiology Group within the Drug Safety Risk Management Department of Roche Global Development. Prior to this position, Susan spent six years in the Global Pharmacoeconomic Research Group as Director of Epidemiology. She was with Roche (previously Syntex) for 25 years, initially spending three years as a senior biostatistician and five years as the Manager of Epidemiology in Syntex’ Occupational Health Department.

Prior to joining Syntex, Susan was Associate Professor in Residence at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine where she had both teaching and research responsibilities. She served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Society for Epidemiologic Research for ten years and on the National Cancer Institute’s Epidemiology and Biometry Contract Review Committee for four years. She also served on the Board of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology.

Susan retired to Scottsdale with her husband in 2010 and enjoys living in this beautiful place where she plays bridge and canasta, hikes, and enjoys book groups among other activities.