Health economist Kenneth E. Warner is renowned for the creativity and analytical rigor of his scholarship, as well as his significant contributions to public policy, particularly related to tobacco and health, in this country and abroad.
His analyses have become the gold standard for evaluating tobacco control interventions. Professor Warner was the first scholar to demonstrate the effectiveness of antismoking campaigns. As a result of his analysis of the behavioral and health effects of cigarette taxes, increasing taxes is a first principle of tobacco control policy around the globe. He also has addressed such important questions as the role of advertising in media coverage of tobacco-related issues, the employment effects of declining tobacco product consumption, the economics of adopting new medical technologies to treat previously untreatable diseases, and the cost effectiveness of radon education and intervention strategies.
Professor Warner, who joined the faculty in 1972, is a superb teacher and mentor and an outstanding University citizen. A past chair of the Department of Public Health Policy and Administration, he serves as director of the U-M Tobacco Research Network and as associate director of the Medical School’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.
Professor Warner advises Congress, other governments, and agencies like the World Health Organization and the World Bank. He serves on the editorial boards of four journals, chairing the board of the international journal Tobacco Control, and is an elected member of the Governing Council of the Institute of Medicine. He also is a director of the American Legacy Foundation, established as part of the settlement between the states and the tobacco industry to combat tobacco use.
Among the many honors Professor Warner has received are the Surgeon General’s Medallion, an American Public Health Association Leadership Award and the School of Public Health Excellence in Research Award. Since 1995, he has been the Richard D. Remington Collegiate Professor of Public Health.
In recognition of the rigor of his research and his influence on public health worldwide, as well as his contributions to the University and to the scientific community as a teacher and academic leader, the University of Michigan proudly recognizes Kenneth E. Warner as the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health.
