Buck Receives Fellowship to Study Tubal Ligation

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Germaine S. Buck, Ph.D., assistant professor of social and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo, has won one of two fellowships sponsored annually by the Merck Company Foundation and the Society for Epidemiology Research.

The $190,000, three-year award will allow her to begin a long-term study of the safety and effectiveness of tubal ligation. The study will involve 3,000-4,000 women who will be followed for 10-20 years.

Buck was one of 40 researchers considered for the fellowships, which are awarded through a national competition. Winners are selected by an independent scientific advisory committee that considers the accomplishments of the researcher, the soundness of the proposed research project and the commitment of the researcher’s institution to the applicant and the research.

Buck has won national recognition for her work in human reproduction and fetal and early childhood health. She said she is particularly pleased to receive the award because it is the first Merck/SER Fellowship devoted to research focusing on reproductive epidemiology.

“Most of these awards in the past have been for cancer and cardiovascular research,” said Buck. “It’s a real coup for UB to get it.”

Norman G. Courey, M.D., and Jean Wactawski-Wende, M.D., of the UB Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, will collaborate on the project.

The Merck/SER fellowships were inaugurated in 1989 to promote clinical epidemiology research. The first fellowships were awarded in 1990.

Past fellowships have gone to the University of Virginia, John’s Hopkins University, Dartmouth College, University of Washington, University of California at San Francisco, Harvard University, Boston University, and Stanford University. The second 1994 fellowship was awarded to the University of Minnesota.

Buck is a resident of Buffalo.