Iman Hakim, MD, PhD, MPH,

Dr. Iman Hakim, dean and professor of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, has been appointed Chair of the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission (ABRC). Dr. Hakim was appointed to the ABRC Commission by Gov. Jan Brewer in December 2011.

"I'm really appreciative that Dr. Hakim is willing to share her talents as the chair for the commission. She has a solid foundation in biomedical research and at the same time brings a pragmatic public health perspective to this important leadership position," said Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The ABRC is committed to advancing bioscience and clinical research in Arizona and provides grants to fund research projects that look into both the understanding of disease and finding treatments for diseases. The commission is funded by tobacco tax and lottery funds.

Dr. Hakim is internationally known for her translational research and work on the role of phytochemicals such as green tea and limonene in modulation of oxidative damage and prevention of chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. She has been the principal investigator of several large-scale, behavior change interventions and clinical trials. These have focused on nutrition and cancer prevention, tea consumption and coronary heart disease, nutrition and tobacco, chemoprevention of lung carcinogenesis using green tea, including dietary interventions to study the effects of tea consumption on smoking-related oxidative stress and role of citrus-cancer association in Mediterranean diet.

The wide scope and significance of her work can be seen in the range of her current other academic appointments at the University of Arizona, which include the Arizona Cancer Center, the Sarver Heart Center, the College of Medicine and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.