Michael B. Bracken

Michael B. Bracken (born September 24, 1942) is an American perinatal epidemiologist. He is the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, at the Yale School of Medicine. He is co-director of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology.

Bracken has authored some 400 articles, correspondence and book chapters, and 3 books concentrating on the perinatal discipline, obstetrics and gynecology, neonatology, neurology, and evidence-based medicine. His publications focus on various topics from smoking, alcohol, nutrition, and caffeine to preterm and low birth weight newborns, electromagnetic fields, birth defects, and asthma. He is the former head of chronic disease epidemiology and former vice chairman (deputy dean) of the Yale School of Public Health where he has studied, taught, and conducted research since 1968. He attended the University of Bristol, St. Paul’s College in Cheltenham, England, from 1962 to 1965. and continued in that role until 2001. The change of title reflected the incorporation of research projects focusing on environmental health as well as collaboration with faculty from other epidemiologic disciplines. Since 2002, Bracken has shared co-directorship of the center with Brian P. Leaderer, professor of epidemiology in the environmental health sciences and deputy dean at the Yale School of Public Health.

From 2005 to 2008 Bracken was research fellow of Green College at the University of Oxford, and in 2008, he was appointed research fellow of renamed Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. published in 1984 by Oxford University Press, was one of the earliest compilations of in-depth investigations and research methods in the modern field of perinatology. Bracken co-edited his second book titled Effective Care of the Newborn Infant with John C. Sinclair published in 1992 by Oxford University Press. The book focuses on interventions in neonatal care and the use of statistical methods, systematic research, and clinical trials for informing health care providers. The book served as a key cornerstone in the foundation of the international Cochrane Collaboration

His most recent book Risk, Chance, and Causation: Investigating the Origins and Treatment of Disease was published by Yale University Press in the summer of 2013 and received honorable mention by the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence PROSE and the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in the Health Sciences Category in 2013. Written for a broad audience, the book provides an overview of the field of epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. Bracken MB. Perinatal epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press; 1984. . Wakeman Award for Neuroscience Research, 1990 Elected Governing Council of Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 1995 President, American College of Epidemiology, 1996-97 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Royal College Lecturer, 1997 American College of Epidemiology, American Public Health Association, Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Society for Epidemiologic Research Combined Special Award "for vision, outstanding leadership and dedication as convener of the 2001 Congress of Epidemiology," 2001 Susan Dwight Bliss Professor, Yale University, 2001 Roy M. Pitkin Award from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for best paper in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2009 American College of Epidemiology Abraham Lilienfeld Award "For excellence in the field of epidemiology. The highest honor the College bestows," 2013 The American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence PROSE, Honorable Mention, 2013 D.Sc honoris causa, University Gloucestershire, UK, 2015 Gordon Lecture Award, National Institutes of Health, 2016