ANN ARBOR—Sir Michael G. Marmot, knighted for his work on health inequities, is slated to speak Nov. 12 at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Marmot will give a talk titled “Inequalities in Health: Interaction of Research and Policy,” as the 29th Annual Thomas Francis Jr. Memorial Lecture, hosted by the School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology. He is director of the International Centre for Health and Society, University College, London, England, as well as a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College.

Marmot is chiefly interested in the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease, and social and cultural determinants of disease, with a particular focus on psychosocial factors and nutrition.

“People react to the findings on inequalities in health in a variety of ways. First is disbelief: It cannot be true. Second, if true, it is the result of differences in medical care. Third, if it is the result of inequalities in society, nothing can be done,” Marmot said. “The evidence is that it is true, that it is not primarily the result of differences in access to high quality medical care, and that there is much that can be done about it, if society has the will.”

Marmot is a member of a wide range of British government advisory committees, including the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Scientific Advisory Group of Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health, and the Civil Service Occupational Health Service Advisory Board. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of numerous publications.

“In an era of exciting discoveries about the science of disease, what remains prominent is that there are enormous differences in the health of people based on race, gender and socioeconomic level,” said George Kaplan, chairman of the U-M Department of Epidemiology. “These are the kinds of differences that result in lost productivity, inability to address new challenges and a general reduction in the quality of life.”

Thomas Francis Jr., for whom the lecture is named, founded the U-M School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and is perhaps best known for his work directing the polio vaccine trials of 1 million children that proved Jonas Salk’s vaccine “safe, potent, and effective.” For the last 29 years, internationally renowned scientists have been invited to the University to speak in honor of Francis’ contributions.

Marmot’s talk fits into an important theme at U-M of addressing causes and cures of inequalities in health represented, for example, by the Michigan Initiative on Inequalities in Health and the Michigan Interdisciplinary Center on Social Inequalities, Mind and Body. Kaplan is director of both of these efforts, which involve faculty from more than 20 different locations on campus.

The event is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. in the auditorium of the School of Public Health II Building, on Washington Heights on U-M’s Central Campus. The talk is free and open to the public.

• For more detail about Marmot: www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology/white/mmarmot.htm
• For more information on the U-M School of Public Health, an institution that focuses on preventing disease and promoting the health of populations in the United States and worldwide, visit www.sph.umich.edu. 
• To learn about the Department of Epidemiology: www.sph.umich.edu/epid/