ADRF Appoints New ADRI Director

The Board of the Asbestos Diseases Research Foundation (ADRF) is pleased to announce that Prof Ken Takahashi has been appointed as the new ADRI Director. He will take over from Prof Nico van Zandwijk – the Institute’s inaugural Director who has held the position since 2008 – in February of 2017.

Ken Takahashi is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health (UOEH), Japan. Ken graduated the School of Medicine, Keio University in 1983 (MD), and after completing a 2-year residency in surgery, received PhD from UOEH and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh. He engages in epidemiologic research of occupational diseases, with special interest on occupational lung diseases, and asbestos-related diseases in particular. He served as consultant/advisor to the WHO and ILO on a number of occasions, examiner/advisor to academic institutes in several Asian countries, (former) Board Member of the International Commission of Occupational Health and (former) President of the Asian Association for Occupational Health. He currently serves as the WHO Expert on Chemical Safety/Environmental Epidemiology (International Health Regulations) and is Fellow and Executive Council Member of the Collegium Ramazzini. He received the Jorma Rantanen Award from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in 2011 and the Selikoff Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (NGO in USA) in 2014.

The ADRF Board and Staff at ADRI look forward to welcoming Ken in the new year, and to the next phase in ADRI’s ongoing efforts to improve the outlook for people affected by asbestos-related diseases.