Award for Global Engagement

Harry Lando, professor in the University’s School of Public Health, is one of the world's preeminent researchers in the area of tobacco prevention and control and a valued teacher, mentor, and colleague to many people in Minnesota and around the world.

Lando has been active in the field of smoking cessation since 1969. His research focuses on global tobacco reduction issues, smoking intervention, and public policy changes to smoking. He has published more smoking intervention trials than anyone else in the world—authoring 167 peer-reviewed journal publications during his long career—and has helped to position the University of Minnesota as a leader on the world stage. A unique aspect of his research is his view that tobacco prevention and control is a fundamental human rights issue. He is working to build a program in tobacco and human rights at the University.

Lando is the principle investigator on a $1.8 million National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center grant to conduct smoking cessation research training in India and Indonesia. He is the past president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), the only international organization solely developed to research tobacco prevention and control. He is currently the chair of the SRNT’s Global Network Committee, which, under his leadership, has become an active force working to increase financial support and visibility for research in developing nations.

Lando has been an influential mentor and teacher both at the University and abroad. Students and scholars at the University of Minnesota have benefited from his vast knowledge of global health and policy development and his popular and long-running course on smoking intervention. His teaching extends well beyond the University of Minnesota. He has been a mentor to junior faculty in Venezuela, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Canada, Finland, China, Brazil, Great Britain, the Republic of Georgia, Philippines, and Syria. One of his colleagues said, "It is his vision, persistence, and energy that, more than any other individual, was responsible for the spectacularly successful effort to internationalize the Society for Research on Nicotine and tobacco's educational mentoring missions. Literally thousands of investigators and policymakers around the globe, who would not otherwise have had the opportunity, have been touched by this extraordinary educator and scientist."

Lando is now devoting his primary career emphasis to global tobacco reduction initiatives, cessation as part of a broader tobacco reduction strategies, and networking to increase resources and emphasis devoted to global tobacco reduction. He is developing a portfolio for global research and policies for the proposed University of Minnesota Tobacco Control Research and Policy Center.