Meir Stampfer

Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition

Department of Nutrition

Research

Dr. Stampfer’s research program is broadly concerned with the etiology of chronic diseases, with particular focus on nutrition, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

With colleagues in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and at Channing Laboratory and the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Stampfer is closely involved in four large prospective cohort studies:

• Nurses’ Health Study I (N = 121,700)
• Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (N = 51,259)
• Physicians’ Health Studies I and II (N = 22,071), and
• Nurses’ Health Study II (N = 116,678)

In each of these studies, participants are surveyed every two years to gather information on diet, smoking, physical activity, medications, health screening behavior, and other variables. We also ascertain the new occurrence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses, including diabetes, fractures, kidney stones, and pre-cancerous lesions.

In addition, Dr. Stampfer leads several NIH-funded projects to assess nutritional and biochemical markers of cancer risk among the 15,000 blood samples collected as part of the Physicians’ Health Study.

All of these large-scale studies are continuing.  In 2005, Dr. Stampfer was identified as the most highly cited scientist in the field of clinical medicine over the previous decade.

Education

Dr.P.H., 1985, Harvard School of Public Health
M.P.H., 1980, Harvard School of Public Health
M.D., 1977, New York University School of Medicine
A.B., 1973, Columbia University