The speaker lineup for the 2026 It's About a Billion Lives Symposium has been announced! Head to billion-lives-2026.eventbrite.com to find out who our esteemed speakers will be.

CTCRE will be presenting at 2026 Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) Annual Meeting, March 4-7, in Baltimore, MD. If you’re attending SRNT, we invite you to join us for one or more sessions. View the schedule here: srnt.joynmeeting.com/conference_h...

Where are our fellows now? This month we spotlight Catherine Egbe (@drcathyegbe.bsky.social), PhD, CTCRE alum and Chief Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council. She shows how our fellowship trains tobacco control leaders. Learn more here: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship

Priority applications are closing soon for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship

Kate Frazer, PhD, 2025 CTCRE Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co- Director, are co-authors on a new paper published last month in Health Promotion International. Read the full article here: academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-Director, was recently interviewed for an article in Hunterbrook in which she discusses the benefits of cytisinicline for smoking cessation. Read here: hntrbrk.com/achieve/

Happy holidays from all of us at CTCRE! Wishing our community of colleagues, fellows, and partners a joyful season filled with rest, reflection, and gratitude. We’re grateful for your continued commitment to advancing tobacco control and health equity.

Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship

CTCRE faculty Nhung Nguyen, PhD, is the lead author on a new paper published this week in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Access the paper here: academic.oup.com/abm/article/...

CTCRE is proud to sponsor this year’s Promoting Research in Social Media and Health (PRISM) Symposium! PRISM fosters collaboration between academic researchers, industry partners, patients, and advocates from over 40 unique institutions. Registration is open! www.eventbrite.com/e/promoting-...

Stella Bialous, RN, DrPH, FAAN, Associate Director for Global Tobacco Control Initiatives, was featured today in an NPR article, where she weighs in on the harms of e-cigarettes and the debate about e-cigarettes as harm reduction tools. Read the article here: www.npr.org/sections/goa...

New paper co-authored by CTCRE’s Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Pam Ling, MD, MPH, and former fellows Karla Llanes, PhD, and Arturo Durazo, PhD, explores digital smoking cessation preferences among low-income Latino residents in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Read: formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e74105

Last week Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the CTCRE, was featured in a San Francisco Chronicle article discussing the findings in “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.” Read the article here: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...

Where are our fellows now? This month we spotlight Lucy Popova PhD, CTCRE alum and now Professor at Georgia State University who shows how our fellowship trains the next generation of tobacco control leaders. Learn more: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship

Congrats to CTCRE fellows Dan Kabella, PhD and Anthony DiMario, PhD! At the 4S conference, they received the 2025 Making & Doing Award for their multimedia and multisensory exploration of the pharmaceutical industry and community archives.

Pam Ling, MD, MPH, CTCRE Director, is the co-author of a new report published in Cannabis titled “Dispensing Medical Advice: San Francisco Bay Area Budtender Recommendations for Pain and Sleep Relief.” Read here: publications.sciences.ucf.edu/cannabis/ind...

Applications are open for the 2026 CTCRE Postdoctoral Fellowship! Train with UCSF faculty and join a community committed to ending tobacco use. Apply today: tobacco.ucsf.edu/fellowship

We bid farewell to Dr. Prakash Kodali, Fulbright visiting scholar at CTCRE. His research advanced tobacco cessation among vulnerable groups. Wishing him the best as he returns to India as Assistant Professor at the Central University of Kerala.

CTCRE & @ucsfcancer.bsky.social hosted the annual Tobacco & Cancer Control Scientific Trainee Retreat in Sept! We were fortunate to be joined by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, 2009 Nobel Laureate in medicine, who delivered the keynote conversation and thoughtfully answered questions from our fellows.

Dr. Pamela Ling joined Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN’s Chasing Life podcast to talk about nicotine addiction, vaping among young adults, and how parents can take action. Listen to “Why Teens Just Can’t Quit Nicotine” here: www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...

Don’t miss “Tobacco Cessation Under Siege” with Dr. Pamela Ling, Dr. Timothy McAfee & April Roeseler. Learn how tobacco control adapts to industry shifts + federal setbacks. Register: ucsf.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

We had a fantastic time at NCTOH connecting with peers and learning about the latest tobacco control activities. From talks to networking events, there were many ways to engage with CTCRE at NCTOH. We look forward to building on this momentum and expanding our partnerships in the years ahead.

CTCRE Fellow Vuong Do, PhD is the lead author on a recently published article in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The study used a smartphone app to see what triggers vaping nicotine, cannabis, or both substances. Access the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/...

In July CTCRE welcomed the return of our Fellowship Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP from a year-long sabbatical in Switzerland. During her time abroad, Dorie investigated the global role pharmaceutical companies play in commercial determinants of health.

We're saying farewell and congratulations to Narges Neyazi, PhD who is are wrapping up her fellowship with CTCRE this month. We are excited to see her join our colleagues at the California Tobacco Prevention Program!

Welcome Daniel Akselrad, PhD! As a postdoctoral fellow at CTCRE he will draw on documents revealed through whistleblowing and litigation to advance a cultural studies approach to corporate harm.

In a new research article co-authored by CTCRE Co-Director Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, researchers found similarities between cannabis products and popular food products. Packaging was formulated with bright colors and fruit flavors attractive to children. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Dorie Apollonio, PhD, MPP, Fellowship Co-Director at CTCRE, is the co-author of a new research article titled: “Characteristics and Trends in Child Cannabis Exposures During Legalization in California.” The full article can be accessed here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

“Adolescent and Young Adult Tobacco and Cannabis Product Use and Co-Use”, a special issue of the Addictive Behaviors journal, has just been released. Pam Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research is a guest editor of this issue. www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

The National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) will take place 8/26-28 in Chicago. NCTOH is the largest, long-standing gathering for top United States tobacco control professionals. CTCRE faculty and fellows will be presenting eight presentations and posters during the conference.

Join CTCRE on August 8th from 12:00–1:00 PM PT for the second talk in our Critical Drug Commodities Speaker Series. For those unable to attend in person, remote access will be available via Zoom.

We're saying farewell and congratulations to Eileen Han, PhD who is are wrapping up her fellowship with CTCRE this month. It’s been a privilege to have Dr. Han as a CTCRE fellow, and we look forward to following her work.

We're saying farewell to Kate Frazer, PhD, who recently concluded her four-month stay as a Fulbright visiting scholar at CTCRE. We’ve greatly valued Dr. Frazer’s contributions and we wish her all the best as she returns to her role as an Associate Professor at University College Dublin.

Going to NCTOH? Join the UCSF Industry Documents Library on Monday, August 25th for the FREE ancillary workshop ‘Putting the Tobacco Industry's Words to Work for You – How to Search and Use Industry Documents.’ Register at tiny.ucsf.edu/2025TobaccoD...

Welcome W. Abraham Qin, PhD! As a postdoctoral fellow at CTCRE, Dr. Qin plans to investigate risk perceptions and factors driving nicotine and cannabis vaping, including within racial and ethnic minority populations.

Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-Director, was recently interviewed for an AARP article that looks at smoking rates in middle-aged and older adults and the cessations efforts needed for these populations. The full article can be accessed below: www.aarp.org/health/condi...

Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, CTCRE Fellowship Co-Director, and Mark Hawes, PhD, MSSW, CTCRE Fellow, are co-authors of a new paper in the latest edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Access the full paper below: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our postdoctoral fellowship program offers training in all aspects of tobacco science with mentorship from top experts in the field. Hear directly from our fellows and faculty about what makes this program unique in our video below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwzs...

Pam Ling, MD, MPH, CTCRE Director, was featured in a New York Times article on July 9th. Dr. Ling provided expert commentary on teen vaping behavior and the high levels of nicotine found in some vape products. Click the link below to read the full article: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/w...

The UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education is a hub for research, education, and public service on tobacco, nicotine, cannabis, opioids, addiction, cessation, marketing, prevention, secondhand smoke, and regulatory science. Learn more: tobacco.ucsf.edu