Potter wins IARC award

Cancer epidemiologist Dr. John Potter of the Public Health Sciences Division will receive a medal of honor from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer for his contributions to cancer research in the field of nutrition, diet and cancer.
 
Potter, who is a senior adviser at Fred Hutch and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, will receive the honor Oct. 23, during a meeting to celebrate IARC Day in Lyons, France. The award ceremony follows lectures by Potter and fellow award recipient Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard University.

Formerly director of the PHS division, Potter is being recognized for his research, which is focused on environmental and genetic risk and intermediate biology in colorectal, breast and pancreatic cancers. He chaired the international panel that produced "Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective," the seminal 1997 report on the feasibility of reducing cancer through diet and other behaviors.

Potter co-leads the Asia Cohort Consortium, a multicenter consortium of cohort studies. He is a professorial fellow at the Centre for Public Health Research at Massey University in New Zealand and has authored or co-authored more than 570 scientific papers, chapters and books.

[Adapted from an IARC news release]