PRESS RELEASE
N° 186
15 May 2008 

IARC GOVERNING COUNCIL ELECTS NEW DIRECTOR


Professor Chris Wild
The Governing Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer at its ordinary meeting May 14-16, 2008 elected a new Director, Professor Christopher Wild for a five-year term. He will take office January 1, 2009.

Dr Christopher Wild, former Chief of the Unit of Environmental Carcinogenesis at IARC (1995 - 1996), is now Professor of Molecular Epidemiology and Director of the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health, and Therapeutics (LIGHT, Leeds, UK). He was also Chair of the UK Molecular Epidemiology Group, and is a senior editor of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (Philadelphia, PA, USA), and a member of the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council (London, UK). His research focuses on understanding the interaction of environmental and genetic risk factors in disease. His long list of publications includes studies on the effects of dietary carcinogens and the causes of oesophageal cancer.

“We can now fully integrate laboratory science and population-based research in order to achieve the goal of cancer prevention,” said Professor Wild. “Also, given the growing cancer burden in low- and medium-resource countries, the Agency needs to develop further a particular focus on these regions of the world.”
“Third, I would like IARC to develop into a center for collaborative research efforts, to facilitate international cancer prevention research”, he went on to say.

Dr Lars E. Hanssen, Chair of the IARC Governing Council, in the name of the Council, expressed his appreciation and deep gratitude to outgoing Director Dr Peter Boyle for his work and commitment to global cancer control and prevention. Dr Boyle will remain in office until the end of his five-year term in December 2008.






World Health Organization
International Agency for Research on Cancer
Organisation mondiale de la Santé
Centre international de Recherche sur le Cancer
150, cours Albert-Thomas 69372 Lyon Cedex 08 (France)
Telephone: 33 472 738 485     Facsimile: 33 472 738 311     http://www.iarc.fr