ANN ARBOR—Long known for its interest in and emphasis on the biological sciences, the committee that awards Nobel Prizes in physiology and medicine has turned its attention to the field of public health. The committee has invited George A. Kaplan, professor and chair of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology, to deliver the first Nobel Forum Lecture in Public Health Sciences.

Kaplan, who directs the Michigan Initiative for Inequalities in Health at the School of Public Health, will speak on socioeconomic inequalities in health at the Nobel Forum which will take place on April 8 at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

The invitation is noteworthy because it indicates that the Nobel committee recognizes the importance of public health, which treats whole populations rather than individuals, as medicine does. The public health approach looks at not only the biological mechanisms of disease, but at the underlying reasons why some populations are healthy and others are not, Kaplan said.

Also significant is the committee’s decision to focus its first public health lecture on the issue of social inequalities in health. This comes at a time when there is increasing evidence that gaps between the rich and the poor are deepening in many countries. Also, there is a concern this will have an impact on what has until now been favorable health trends, Kaplan said. Can we expect to live longer and do better when societies are increasingly becoming more economically polarized?

Kaplan’s Nobel lecture is titled “Upstream and Downstream Approaches to Inequalities in Health.”