Kurt Straif MD, PhD, MPH

Kurt Straif, MD, MPH, Ph.D., is a senior scientist in the section of the IARC Monographs of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Lyon, France (since 2001). His research focus is on occupational and environmental risk factors for cancer; he serves on several national and international committees charged with primary and secondary prevention of cancer. He studied medicine at the Universities of Liège (Belgium), Heidelberg and Bonn (Germany), and philosophy (with a focus on the theory of science) at the University of Bonn (1976-84).

He is Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational, Environmental and Social Medicine (1984-90). He obtained his PhD in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (2001). From 1984-90 he was a Resident and Research Fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Bonn; in 1991, Visiting Scientist at the Department of Environmental Sciences at the School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. From 1991-95, he was a Research Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Giessen (Germany). From 1995-2001 he has been an Assistant and Associate Professor, Head of the Unit of Cancer and Occupational Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Münster (Germany).