Expert in the effects of lifestyle choices on cancer risk named C.-E.A. Winslow Professor

Susan T. Mayne, Ph.D., an expert in the lifestyle determinants of cancer risk, has been named the C.-E.A. Winslow Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).

Mayne’s research has emphasized the role of dietary factors in the etiology of several major cancers. She also studies other lifestyle factors, such as tobacco and alcohol use, and their interaction with genetics in cancer risk.

Recently, Mayne co-authored a study that found that indoor tanning significantly raises the risk of an increasingly common form of skin cancer in young people. Mayne and colleagues at the School of Public Health reported online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology in December that people under the age of 40 who had tanned indoors had a 69 percent increased risk of early-onset basal cell carcinoma. The team found that the association was strongest among women, and that the risk increased with years of tanning use.

Mayne is head of the Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, which includes 28 faculty members. She is also associate director of Yale Cancer Center, where she is responsible for Population Sciences. Mayne, who earned her doctorate from Cornell University, has led Yale’s Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program for 17 years to record-high levels of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and productivity. She developed the Yale-National Cancer Institute partnership, which gives faculty and students access to important national cohort studies for research, as well as an NIH-funded training program in cancer epidemiology and genetics, now entering its ninth year. She has received the Distinguished Teaching Award at YSPH.

A member of several editorial boards, Mayne is a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women. She has authored or co-authored over 170 articles and book chapters.

The C.-E.A. Winslow Memorial Fund was established in 1958 by an anonymous donor to support the work of a professor in the Department of Public Health (a precursor to YSPH). It recognizes Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, M.S., Dr.Ph., who served as chair of the department from its founding in 1915 until his retirement in 1945. A scholar with an international reputation and a firm belief in the philosophy of disease prevention, Winslow profoundly influenced both Yale’s department and the burgeoning field of public health.