Lewis returns to McMaster as professor in global health

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[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/stephen_lewis_cropped1.jpg” caption=”Stephen Lewis will return to McMaster as a visiting professor in global health for a three-year appointment. File photo.”]Stephen Lewis, McMaster University's first Social Sciences Scholar-in-Residence, is returning to campus as a visiting professor in global health for a three-year appointment. He will be teaching in the Department of Health, Aging and Society through to 2010.

“This is fantastic news for the University,” said Susan Elliott, dean of Social Sciences. “His presence will change the face of the entire department, and will help shape the newly developing program in global health at McMaster.”

Lewis will teach a fourth-year undergraduate course offered in term two. It will examine climate change and the related consequences for global health in both the developed and developing world.

“It is so nice to be a part of a place like McMaster,” says Lewis. “I love being on campus. Being with the students — both graduate and undergraduate — it's the elixir of life. I really enjoy meeting with them and listening to their academic issues.”

In 2006, Lewis became the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster. He is the former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and is currently a senior advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and board chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

He holds 25 honorary degrees from Canadian universities, receiving his first from McMaster. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada and most recently, was invested as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe, named for the founder of the African nation of Lesotho. The knighthood is Lesotho's highest honour.