Prof. Nino Künzli has been nominated Professor and Chair of Social and Preventive Medicine/Public Health at the University Basel Medical School

Prof. Nino Künzli, ICREA Research Professor since January 2006 at CREAL, has been nominated Professor and Chair (Catedratico) of Social and Preventive Medicine / Public Health at the University Basel Medical School. This election brings Dr. Künzli back to the University he studied medicine and where he spent important years of his international career inenvironmental epidemiology, initiated in 1989 when he left the clinics. His move to Basel coincides with a visionary reorganization of Public Health in Basel. The current Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) – supposed to be led by Dr. Künzli – will be integrated in the prestigious Swiss Tropical Institute (STI) in June 2009. ISPM has a long standing record in environmental and gender health research, while STI has become a leading  institution of public and international health. Under a new name, these strong complementary partners will put their efforts together in high quality research, education, and services to improve public health on both local and global scale.

Nino Künzli will in particular lead the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of the new institution which he will co-direct later on. His department will include the former ISPM and other research units. Chronic diseases of both the South and North and its environmental, social, and biological determinants will be an important focus of the research agenda.

Several CREAL scientists have a long-standing record of research done with ISPM. Both centres belong to the European consortium ESCAPE investigating chronic effects of traffic related air pollution and to the European Community Respiratory Health Survey ECRHS. CREAL as well as the REGICOR partners at IMIM are looking forward to continued collaborations between Basel and Barcelona.