ANN ARBOR—The University of Michigan will launch a new lecture series in February to recognize the remarkable accomplishments of its Distinguished University Professors.

Earl Lewis, vice provost and dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, said, “Distinguished University Professors exemplify the values, strengths and diversity of the University, and are scholars of great depth and breadth. They are outstanding teachers and mentors, and are generous in their service to their disciplines, to their schools and colleges, and to the University.”

Health economist Kenneth E. Warner, the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health, will give the inaugural lecture at 4 p.m. Feb. 6 in the Hussey Room, Michigan League [directions]. His lecture topic is “In Harm’s Way? Harm Reduction and the Future of Tobacco-related Death and Disease.”

Warner, professor of health management and policy and director of U-M Tobacco Research Network, was the first scholar to demonstrate the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns. His research on tobacco policies has influenced policy development on such matters as cigarette taxation and tobacco advertising restrictions in scores of countries around the world.

A U-M faculty member since 1972, Warner advises Congress, other governments, and agencies like the World Health Organization and the World Bank. He chairs the board of the international journal “Tobacco Control” and is a director of the American Legacy Foundation, established to combat tobacco use.

Warner has received the Surgeon General’s Medallion, an American Public Health Association Leadership Award and the School of Public Health Excellence in Research Award. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the IOM’s governing Council.

Richard O. Lempert, the Eric Stein Distinguished University Professor of Law and Sociology, will give the second lecture, “Defending Affirmative Action,” at 4 p.m. April 10 in the Founders Room of the Alumni Center.

Lempert, professor of law and of sociology and faculty associate in the Institute for Social Research‘s Survey Research Center, has been a member of the faculty since 1968. A pioneer in the field of law and society studies, he applies social scientific knowledge and methods to legal issues, including studies of juries, race and affirmative action, and the law of evidence. Currently he directs the University’s Life Sciences, Values and Society Program.

Lempert is a senior fellow of the University of Michigan Society of Fellows and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, a visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and has received the Law and Society Association‘s Kalven Prize for scholarly achievement.

The first Distinguished University Professorships were created in 1947 to provide recipients maximum freedom to pursue scholarly and teaching efforts to contribute to the University and the nation.

The U-M Regents have created 30 Distinguished University Professorships, of which 24 are filled by active faculty, including Lempert and Warner. An additional three have been selected for appointment in fall 2002, pending Regental approval.

Each Distinguished University Professorship is named for a person of distinction in the same general field as the recipient, preferably a person associated with the U-M.

Warner’s professorship is named in honor of the late Avedis Donabedian, the Nathan Sinai Distinguished Professor of Public Health, who retired from the University in 1989 after 28 years of service. Donabedian was awarded one of public health’s highest honors, the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health by the American Public Health Association, for his research in quality assessment and monitoring of health services, epidemiology of patient needs, and the design of program benefits for the public and private sectors.

Lempert’s Distinguished University Professorship is named in honor of Eric Stein, the Hessel E. Yntema Professor Emeritus of Law at the U-M. Stein, a specialist in international and comparative law, fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1939 to escape the Nazis. He earned a second law degree at Michigan’s Law School in 1942 and worked for the U.S. Department of State prior to joining the Law School faculty in 1955, where he co-directed international legal studies. Stein, who retired in 1983, has served as an adviser to the U.S. delegation to the United Nation’s General Assembly and Security Council and to the U.S. Counsel at the International Court of Justice.

Distinguished University Professors receive annual supplements of $3,000 for salary and $5,000 for research.

Earl LewisKenneth E. Warnerhealth management and policyWorld Health OrganizationInstitute of MedicineRichard O. Lempertlaw