Robert Ware Haley, M.D. completed his MD and internal medicine residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas Parkland Hospital, served 10 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receiving the U.S. Public Health Service Commendation Medal, and then founded the Division of Epidemiology at UT Southwestern.  He is currently Professor of Internal Medicine, Distinguished Teaching Professor, and holder of the U.S. Armed Forces Veterans Distinguished Chair in Medical Research Honoring America’s Gulf War Veterans.  He has published over 200 scientific papers from research on West Nile encephalitis, hepatitis C, hospital-acquired infection, self-administered outpatient antibiotic therapy, Gulf War illness, and cardiovascular epidemiology through the Dallas Heart Study. For the past 16 years he has studied the health effects of air pollution in Dallas from nearby coal-fired power plants, and he lectures widely on the scientific evidence for climate change.  This year he serves on Dallas County’s Public Health Advisory Committee, developing Covid-19 response policy for the County government and is advising performing arts organizations, the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, and SMU on Covid-19 precautions. 

He attends on the Parkland Hospital internal medicine teaching service and teaches epidemiologic research methods and biostatistics to medical students and young research faculty and to SMU graduate students in the SMU-UT Southwestern joint statistics graduate program. He is a fellow of the American College of Internal Medicine and the American College of Epidemiology.  Recent honors include: the SMU Dedman College Distinguished Graduate Award and the SMU Distinguished Alumnus Award; the Dallas Historical Society’s Award of Excellence in Community Service: Health Sciences/Medicine; the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award; Texas Medical Association’s Gold Level Award for Excellence in Academic Medicine; and the American College of Physicians’ Laureate Award.  Last year he received the Texas Medical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to medicine through public health.