Professor of Epidemiology
Department of Epidemiology
College of Human Medicine
Michigan State University

Email: janthony@msu.edu
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Community of Science Expertise Profile

James C. (Jim) Anthony, Ph.D. earned his bachelor's degree from Carleton College in 1971, his M.Sc. from the University of Minnesota in 1975, his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1977, and a postdoctoral fellowship award at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (1977-78).

At Minnesota, his Ph.D. doctoral advisors were Drs. Albert I. Wertheimer (chairman , pharmacy sciences) and Leonard M. Schuman (chairman, epidemiology). At Johns Hopkins, he studied with Drs. Ernest M. Gruenberg and Morton Kramer (mental hygiene), as well as Drs. Paul McHugh and Marshal Folstein (psychopathology). His first and second academic appointments were as an Instructor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy (1972-77), and as an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (1978-89, with appointments in the departments of mental hygiene and also in epidemiology).

After 11 years, he earned promotion to tenured Professor at Johns Hopkins, where he worked full-time until late in 2003. He continues as an Adjunct Professor at JHU. As Hopkins professor, his faculty appointments were in mental hygiene and epidemiology within the school of public health and in psychiatry and behavioral sciences within the school of medicine.

In 2003 he transferred his primary academic appointments, research, and research training program to Michigan State University, where he serves as tenured professor of epidemiology in the MSU College of Human Medicine. He also served as chairman of the medical school's Department of Epidemiology from October 2003 until he stepped down in December 2008. In 2006, he was awarded the title of 'Profesor Honorario' by Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia UPCH) in Lima, Peru, for his contributions to development of that university's public health research training program and research in neuropsychiatric and drug dependence epidemiology.

His research accomplishments appear in more than 300 published articles and books, and have been recognized in awards and honors, including designation as a 'highly influential' contributor to the research literature of 'psychology/psychiatry' and 'general social sciences' based on epidemiological studies of psychiatric and other behavioral disturbances (www.isihighlycited.com). He has been elected to serve as President of the Alpha Chapter of the Delta Omega Society, the premier public health honors society in the world, and is current chairman of the Section of Epidemiology and Public Health of the World Psychiatric Association. He is a Fellow in the American Psychopathological Association and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. His other voluntary and elected memberships and fellowships include the following: Society of Epidemiologic Research (since 1977), American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 1977), American Public Health Association (since 1977), American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (elected member), College on Problems of Drug Dependence (elected fellow and former Board of Directors member), World Psychiatric Association Section on Epidemiology and Public Health (elected chairman, 2001-present), and the American Epidemiological Association.

He is an NIH Senior Scientist awardee, with a K05 Senior Scientist award to support his research activities, as well as continuous NIH R01 award support since the early 1980s, and he has been founding director for two NIH-funded drug dependence epidemiology training programs, one for US citizens (now in its 17th year of funding) and one for epidemiologists from overseas (now in its 8th year of funding, with a South American base at UPCH in Lima, Peru). He maintains a focused attention on the research career development of new investigators, and more than a dozen of his trainees have become NIH principal investigators, including one who has become a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and another with a NIDA MERIT award.

In 2006 he received the prestigious Mentor Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. In addition, during 2009, he received the NIDA International Programs Award of Excellence for Mentoring  for his "contributions as a mentor to NIDA-supported research trainees from overseas, exceptional guidance to help NIDA fellows achieve research independence, and his leadership in NIDA's efforts to develop an international community of scientists who exchange information and collaborate on drug abuse research nationally, regionally, and globally," as well as the National Hispanic Science Network’sNational Award for Excellence in Mentorship, which recognizes a senior investigator who has provided outstanding mentorship in the area of Hispanic drug abuse to Hispanic graduate students and new investigators, resulting in peer-reviewed publications or successful grant applications.