Warren Winkelstein

Warren Winkelstein Jr., M.D., M.P.H. (b. 1 July 1922) is an American epidemiologist and professor emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Winkelstein is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Winkelstein was born in Syracuse, New York, and received his medical degree from Syracuse University in 1947. He subsequently obtained a Masters degree in public health from Columbia University in 1950. After working in Buffalo, New York for several years under Abraham Lilienfeld, he accepted an appointment at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, serving as Dean of the school from 1972 to 1981.

Winkelstein has made important contributions in a number of areas of epidemiology. Early in his academic career, he participated in clinical trials of the polio vaccine. During his time in Buffalo, Winkelstein studied the health impact of the city's air pollution, successfully separating the effect of pollution from other confounding social and environmental factors, and also contributed greatly to the understanding of coronary artery disease in women. At Berkeley, Winkelstein did pioneering research on the link between tobacco smoke and cervical cancer.

In the 1980s and thereafter, Winkelstein's work was focused mainly on HIV and the AIDS epidemic. Winkelstein led the San Francisco Men's Health Study, one of the largest and best-described cohorts of people at risk for HIV/AIDS. By studying this cohort, Winkelstein and his collaborators were able to contribute greatly to the understanding of the epidemiology of HIV and AIDS, in particular the modes of viral transmission, risk factors for progression to AIDS, and duration of the incubation period.

Since retiring and assuming emeritus status, Winkelstein has worked on biographical sketches of major figures in the history of epidemiology, including John Snow, Edward Jenner, and his mentor, Abraham Lilienfeld.