BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION

Gilbert J. Botvin, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of psychology in healthcare policy and research, has been a member of Cornell's Weill Medical College faculty since 1980. He was a tenure professor of psychology in public health and a professor of psychology in psychiatry. He was also chief of the division of prevention and health behavior in the department of public health and director of Cornell's Institute for Prevention Research. Prior to coming to Cornell, Dr. Botvin spent three years at the American Health Foundation where he was director of child health behavior research. 

Dr. Botvin is an internationally-known expert in the field of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has presented over 300 papers and invited addresses at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Botvin has been a principal investigator on numerous NIH-funded prevention trials involving over 300 schools and 40,000 students. Among these is a  five-year drug abuse and violence prevention trial with inner-city youth and a 10-year center grant that involved collaborators at Columbia University and focused on drug abuse prevention with multi-ethnic youth. Dr. Botvin was also the principal investigator and scientific director of two large-scale translational research prevention studies funded by NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Dr. Botvin is a past president and board member of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) and founding editor of Prevention Science, an international peer reviewed scientific journal. He is also a founding member of the Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health. Dr. Botvin has received numerous awards including SPR's presidential award, a lifetime achievement award for his many notable contributions to the field of prevention science. In 1997, Dr. Botvin was the first prevention researcher to receive a prestigious MERIT award from NIDA (NIH), an award given to the most outstanding senior scientists funded by NIH.

Dr. Botvin has served on numerous expert panels and advisory committees for federal agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Education, and the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy.

Dr. Botvin is the developer of a tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention program called Life Skills Training (LST), and is founder and president of National Health Promotion Associates, Inc. which markets the LST program and provides training services to teachers and health professionals.

Dr. Botvin holds a BA (Colgate University) and MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D. (Columbia University) with training and experience in both developmental and clinical psychology.

Selected NIH-funded research projects include:

• Principle Investigator, Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention with Minority Youth Merit Award, 2000-2005, National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Principal Investigator, Multi-Ethnic Drug Abuse Prevention Among New York Youth, 1991-2005, National Institutes of Health
• Principal Investigator, Enhancing Implementation Fidelity in a Multi-Site Trial, 2004-2009, National Institute on Drug Abuse