Robin Room

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Robin Gerald Walden Room
Born (1939-12-28) 28 December 1939 (age 84)
Alma materPrinceton University, University of California, Berkeley
AwardsJellinek Award (co-winner, 1983), Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Drug and Alcohol Endeavours (2012)
Scientific career
FieldsPublic health, health effects of legal and illegal drugs, sociology
InstitutionsCentre for Alcohol Policy Research, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health of the University of Melbourne, Stockholm University
ThesisGoverning images of alcohol and drug problems: the structure, sources, and sequels of conceptualizations of intractable problems (1978)
Websitewww.robinroom.net

Robin Gerald Walden Room (born 28 December 1939)[1] is an Australian sociologist and researcher who studies the health effects of alcohol and other drugs. From 2015 - 2017 he was the director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University, formerly at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, as well as the Professor of Alcohol Policy Research at the School of Population Health of the University of Melbourne, since March 2006.[2] He is also a professor at the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University.

Education[edit]

Room received his B.A. from Princeton University in English in 1960, and his two M.A.'s (the first in English, the second in sociology) from the University of California, Berkeley in 1962 and 1967, respectively. He later received his PhD in sociology from Berkeley in 1978.[3]

Career[edit]

Room began working at the National Alcohol Research Centre in Berkeley, California in 1963 and remained there until 1991. He became the centre's scientific director in 1977.[2] From 1991 to 1998, he worked at the Addiction Research Foundation in Canada, as their vice president for research.[2] In 1999, he was appointed professor and founding director of the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University,[2] where he is still a professor as of December 2010.[3] In 2006, he joined both the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research and the University of Melbourne in 2006.[4]

Research[edit]

Room's research pertains to alcohol, illegal drugs, and gambling behavior.[2] For example, in a 2005 study, Room and his co-authors Thomas Babor and Jurgen Rehm found that about 4% of the global burden of disease was attributable to alcohol consumption, about the same amount as tobacco consumption.[5][6]

Editorial activities[edit]

Room is the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Drug and Alcohol Review.[2]

Honors and awards[edit]

Room received the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship from the Drug Policy Alliance in 2015.[7] He has also received the Jellinek Award for Alcohol Studies in 1983,[3] the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Section of the American Public Health Association in 2002,[4] and the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Drug and Alcohol Endeavours in 2012.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Q-S. Gale Group. 2005. p. 302. ISBN 9780787673987.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Professor Robin Room". CAPR. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  3. ^ a b c "Curriculum Vitae". Robinroom.net. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Robin Room website". Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  5. ^ Room, Robin; Babor, Thomas; Rehm, Jürgen (February 2005). "Alcohol and public health". The Lancet. 365 (9458): 519–530. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)17870-2. PMC 5936368. PMID 15705462.
  6. ^ WebMD (4 February 2005). "Study: Alcohol Kills as Many as Tobacco". Fox News. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  7. ^ "Robin Room wins DPA award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship". International Drug Policy Consortium. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2015.

External links[edit]