UA Professor Receives Amherst Honorary Degree

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Alan Blum, University of Alabama professor in the College of Community Health Sciences, Gerald Leon Wallace Endowed Chair in Family Medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, recently received an honorary degree from Amherst College.

A 1969 Amherst graduate, Blum was recognized for his work in the field of family medicine and his focus on preventing tobacco-related illness.

Blum has served as editor or on the editorial board of nine medical journals, written numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals, and traveled widely as a public speaker. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called him an “unsung hero of the world of public health.”

As an anti-smoking activist, Blum pioneered the use of paid “counter-advertising” through purchased space in the mass media. He has also studied the tobacco industry’s efforts to target women, minorities and children, and has examined the connection between cigarette companies and their sponsorship of sports and cultural events.

At the Amherst event, Blum presented a lecture on “Medicine vs. Madison Avenue: Fighting Smoke with Fire.”