Alumni

Giovino is an epidemiologist who focuses primarily on behavioral issues. His research interests have included patterns, determinants, consequences and control of tobacco use, which are part of a more general focus on disease prevention and health promotion. As a SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Health and Health Professions (SPHHP), he continues to study possible relationships between suboptimal nutrition and addictions, particularly nicotine addiction. 

Following his doctoral training at UB, Giovino worked as a research associate at the University of Rochester, where he co-led the evaluation of one of the nation’s first successful telephone quit lines. He joined the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he served as Chief of the Epidemiology Branch during most of the 1990s. There he became the lead scientist on tobacco surveillance within the Federal government. Subsequently, he has conducted tobacco surveillance and evaluation work at local, national and international levels. 

From 1999 until 2006, Giovino served as senior research scientist in the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. After moving to UB in 2006, he served as chair of the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in SPHHP. 

Giovino has authored or co-authored 268 scientific publications and delivered 77 invited presentations. He has been awarded the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Doll/Wynder Award for research in tobacco epidemiology from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and the Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award from the American Society of Preventive Oncology.