Hans-Olov Adami believes that today's students have a dangerous preoccupation with career planning. “Our mission isn't to publish papers, our mission is to make discoveries,” he says. Adami has followed this credo throughout his own career. Although trained as a medical surgeon, Adami followed his passion to become one of the top medical and cancer epidemiologists in the world. (See CV)

At Uppsala University in Sweden, Adami spent 17 years practising medicine and surgery. But it was his doctoral dissertation project — on the epidemiology of breast cancer — that sparked his interest in a new career path. Lacking mentors at Uppsala, Adami taught himself epidemiological study design. “All of a sudden, I realized how medical knowledge is generated,” he says, emphasizing the often uncertain relationship between epidemiological research, which pinpoints the causes of disease, and clinical research, which diagnoses and treats. With clinical research colleagues, he began his first series of epidemiological and clinical projects soon after completing his PhD.

In 1986, he was appointed to a new senior research position in cancer epidemiology at Uppsala University, funded by the Swedish Cancer Society. He subsequently surrendered his surgical gloves to pursue research. The programme's success culminated in Adami's appointment as national chair of cancer epidemiology in 1990. Wanting more security for his employees, Adami made the bold decision to move the entire department to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The department grew to more than 160 people, established the largest unit for biostatistics in Sweden and expanded into areas outside cancer, such as reproductive epidemiology.

Meanwhile, Adami forged connections with Harvard's school of public health as an adjunct professor. From next February, he will chair the department of epidemiology, and plans to use this opportunity to expand on global projects with non-Western countries such as Singapore. Current chair Meir Stampfer, whose work has entered controversial areas such as the link between obesity and mortality, says Adami's international perspective is unique and will help him lead the department in an increasingly global field.

Adami has already created a new training module that will divide trainees' time between Sweden and Singapore. He hopes it will help young people embrace their curiosity, rather than their perceived career goals.