Former IARC staff member knighted for services to Public Health

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is proud to announce that former IARC staff member Dr Andrew (“Andy”) Hall was knighted in the United Kingdom, Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2013. Dr Hall, who recently retired as Professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, received the knighthood for services to public health.
Dr Hall, who was an IARC staff member from 1986 to 1990, is best known at IARC as the first project leader of the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS), and was stationed in The Gambia at that time. This innovative project, a collaboration between IARC, the Medical Research Council UK and The Gambian Government first sought to evaluate the efficacy of HBV vaccination through integration into the national Gambian Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). This study is continuing long-term to look at the impact on the incidence of liver cancer through linkage to the national cancer registry established at that time. Dr Hall has continued to be involved in this project, even after he took up a position at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and he is currently a Senior Visiting Scientist at the Agency, where he keeps a close eye on the long-term follow-up of the children he helped immunize almost three decades ago. Congratulations, Sir Andy!Read more