Dr. Botvin holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1977) with training and experience in both developmental and clinical psychology. He is a Professor in both the Department of Public Health and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Chief of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior, and Director of Cornell's Institute for Prevention Research. Dr. Botvin is widely recognized as an expert in the field of tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse prevention. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has presented over 250 papers and invited addresses at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Botvin has been a principal investigator on 20 federally funded school-based prevention projects involving over 300 schools and 40,000 students. He is currently the Principal
Investigator on two NIDA-funded grants including a drug abuse and violence prevention trial with inner-city youth and a center grant with collaborators at Columbia University focusing on drug abuse prevention with multi-ethnic youth.

In 1997, Dr. Botvin was the first prevention researcher to receive a prestigious MERIT award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an award given to the most outstanding senior scientists funded by NIH. He is also the recipient of the Society of Prevention Research's Presidential Award for Prevention Excellence, is the founding Editor of the Society's journal, Prevention Science, and just finished a two-year term as President of SPR.

Dr. Botvin has served on numerous expert panels and advisory committees for federal agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Office on Drug Policy.