The National Birth Defects Prevention Network, an organization dedicated to birth defects surveillance, research, and prevention, recently recognized University of Iowa Professor of Epidemiology Paul Romitti with the organization’s prestigious Godfrey P. Oakley, Jr. Award.

The award, presented last month at the NBDPN’s national meeting in Arlington, VA, is given to an individual who has made significant lifetime contributions to the field of birth defects.

Romitti directs the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders, a collaborative program of the UI College of Public Health and the Iowa Department of Public Health. He previously served NBDPN as Data Committee Chair, Executive Committee Member, and President for the organization.

The award is named for Godfrey Oakley, the former Director of the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was instrumental in setting the CDC birth defects agenda and in focusing national attention on the effects of folic acid in preventing neural tube defects.