Smita Bhatia Lauded by American Cancer Society for Contributions to Cancer Prevention

Smita Bhatia, the Gay and Bew White Endowed Professor in Pediatric Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has received the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology-American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Award in recognition of her contributions to cancer prevention, control research, and practice.

In 2015, Dr. Bhatia joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and established the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship. She holds many leadership and research appointments within the university including, vice chair for outcomes in the department of pediatrics, associate director for outcomes research in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, and associate director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education. Prior to her current position, she spent 18 years with City of Hope, a cancer research institute and hospital in Durante, California. During her tenure with the hospital, she founded the department of population sciences and served as the Ruth Ziegler Chair in Population Sciences.

“I am humbled to be selected as the 2024 recipient of the ASCO-ACS Cancer Prevention Award,” said Bhatia. “Throughout my life, I have been incredibly fortunate to have wonderful mentors — I owe this recognition to them.”

Dr. Bhatia holds a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota and a medical doctorate from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.