Dr. Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, recognized with the 2026 President’s Award for Outstanding Service
Dr. Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Forster Family Chair in Cancer Prevention at the Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota. She is the Founder and Former Director of The Tobacco Use Research Center.
Dr. Hatsukami is widely recognized for her research on nicotine addiction and its treatment among both adult smokers and adolescents - including studies on smokeless tobacco. More recently, her work has focused on developing methods and measures to evaluate tobacco products, including leading the creation of a transdisciplinary team at both the institutional and national levels to advance this effort. She has dedicated significant attention to building the scientific foundation for policies aimed at reducing tobacco-related death and disease, such as lowering the toxicity and nicotine content of tobacco products.
Throughout her career, she has demonstrated exceptional service to the University of Minnesota community and beyond. Dr. Hatsukami’s long-history of outstanding contributions, current and past, have culminated in her recently being recognized with the 2026 President’s Award for Outstanding Service.
This award marks a career full of meaningful contributions. “I have spent my entire career at the University of Minnesota so I feel honored and touched to receive this award, especially because I see so many people at our University who have dedicated a tremendous amount of effort in providing service to our institution,” said Dr. Hatsukami, adding that “professionally, this award acknowledges the importance of pursuing the goal of contributing to and enriching the lives of the people and communities around us.”
The President’s Award honors service contributions that extend well beyond formal responsibilities. Service, defined by Dr. Hatsukami as, “enriching the community in which you reside. That can mean from your own research unit to the University and all its components to the national and global stage. The amount of time that I dedicated to each of these areas has shifted back and forth over my career. But what was foundational to providing service was to shape the community directly around me. The research team that we developed allowed for the wonderful collaborations, scientific discoveries, translation, impact and the pure fun of coming to work,” she noted.
Dr. Hatsukami has served on numerous scientific advisory boards and national committees. Some of which include: The Food and Drug Administration, Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Scientific Board of Counselors for the National Institutes on Drug Abuse; the Drug Control Research, Data and Evaluation Committee of the Office on National Drug Control Policy; the World Health Organization Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation; and the National Cancer Institute, Board of Scientific Advisors.
It takes great personal and professional vigor and perseverance to reach all that Dr. Hatsukami has managed to achieve throughout her career at the University of Minnesota. Having a good balance between the challenges and the rewards to this work certainly helps to sustain such high-level work. Dr. Hatsukami shares, “The greatest satisfaction from my work stems from the collaborations with faculty, staff and students. Working together to achieve a mission or vision, whether it be improving public health, fostering discovery and contributions in a particular area, facilitating the goals of the younger faculty or students or obtaining grant funding, brings me joy and fulfillment.” This is evident in the passion visible throughout Dr. Hatsukami’s career and through the service she has and still continues to contribute to the University of Minnesota and beyond.
