Harvard Professor Albert Hofman receives the title of doctor honoris causa of the NKUA’s School of Medicine

Albert Hofman, Professor of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was awarded the title of doctor honoris causa of the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

The awarding ceremony took place on Wednesday, 23 October 2024, at 19:00, at the Great Hall of the University of Athens (main building, 30 Panepistimiou St).

Addressing the ceremony was the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Professor Gerasimos Siasos.

It was the Dean of the NKUA’s School of Health Sciences, Professor Pagona Lagiou, who presented the work and personality of the honouree.

Immediately afterwards, the Chair of the Department of Medicine, Professor Nikolaos Arkadopoulos, read the Department’s Resolution, the Award, and the Honorary Diploma.

Then, the Dean of the NKUA’s School of Health Sciences, Professor Pagona Lagiou, invested the honouree with the gown of the School.

The ceremony concluded with the honouree, Professor Albert Hofman, delivering a speech entitled ‘The Use of Hippocratic Epidemiology’.

In his address to the honouree, Professor Gerasimos Siasos, the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, said, among other things, the following: ‘Professor Albert Hofman’s academic career is driven by a continuous effort to bridge scientific fields and create new collaborations. That is clearly evident in the close relationship between the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Medical Statistics of the NKUA’s School of Medicine. Our School of Medicine has had a long history of cooperation with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health since the time when the latter was chaired by the late pioneer Professor Dimitris Trichopoulos. The recent Memorandum of Understanding signed between our two Universities formalizes in the best way possible this long-standing partnership in Epidemiology while providing the basis for further strengthening the above relationship’. In addition, the Rector stressed that: ‘As part of the above collaboration, we launched this week an intensive course entitled “Clinical Epidemiology: From Theory to Application”, which will give our students the chance to deepen their knowledge of Clinical Epidemiology and comparative effectiveness research methods. Under the scientific supervision of Professors Albert Hofman and Pagona Lagiou, this innovative programme, which is currently underway, offers a unique opportunity to thirty students in our country to train alongside distinguished academics from a world-class Institution, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’.