SPEAKER BIO: Dr. Brad Rodu

Dr. Brad Rodu is professor of medicine at the University of Louisville and a member of the university’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. For the past decade, Dr. Rodu has been the leading advocate of tobacco harm reduction, involving the substitution of safer tobacco products for smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit smoking with conventional cessation methods. In addition to numerous contributions in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, Dr. Rodu has written commentaries for the general press and has authored the book, For Smokers Only: How Smokeless Tobacco Can Save Your Life. He served as an expert witness at a 2003 Congressional hearing on tobacco harm reduction and has spoken at international forums on the subject, including one held in London at the British Houses of Parliament. A native of Ohio, Dr. Rodu earned his dental degree from the Ohio State University in 1977. After an oral pathology residency program at Emory University, Dr. Rodu completed fellowships at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) sponsored by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. He was on the UAB faculty from 1981 to 2005, with appointments in the Departments of Pathology, Surgery-Otolaryngology and Radiation Oncology (School of Medicine), Epidemiology (School of Public Health), and Diagnostic Sciences (School of Dentistry). Additional information about Dr. Rodu’s research can be found online at http://www.uab.edu/smokersonly.