Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Senior Health Economist Martin Meltzer, Ph.D., led a day-long seminar on applied health economics at the University of Vermont's Davis Center on Tuesday, August 30, 2011.

Co-sponsored by the Vermont Department of Health and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, with support from the New England Alliance for Public Health Workforce Development, the seminar targeted public health professionals and academic researchers. Attendees learned the basic principles of applied health economics research and discussed how interdisciplinary groups of professionals could apply health economics principles to public health research and interventions. The event's secondary objective was to strengthen the relationship between academic public health at UVM’s College of Medicine and public health practitioners.

"In a time when resources are so limited and prevention so needed, Dr. Meltzer's seminar provided participants with an invaluable, interactive day of learning the science of health economics and prevention effectiveness," says Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health at the UVM College of Medicine. "Public health is a team sport, so it was important to have this opportunity for collaboration between the Vermont Department of Health and the University of Vermont College of Medicine."

Meltzer, who also serves as a distinguished consultant to the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, is involved in research on the modeling of potential responses to smallpox as a bioterrorist weapon, evaluating the economic impact of pandemic influenza, and assessing the economics of controlling diseases such as rabies, dengue, hepatitis A, meningitis, Lyme and malaria. He played an important role in the response to the 2009 influenza pandemic, providing frequent updates of estimates of impact of the pandemic and estimated the effectiveness of a number of different interventions. The author of more than 100 publications and associate editor of the CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, Meltzer has received numerous honors and awards, including the CDC's Charles C. Shepard award and the James H. Nakano citation. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a master’s degree and doctorate degree in applied economics from Cornell University.