Dr. Katherine M. Detre

Dr. Katherine Detre is a research leader in large-scale studies investigating disease and risk factors across populations. She grew up in Budapest, Hungary during the Nazi occupation in World War II. To cope with the loss of some of her closest family members, she devoted herself to her studies. In Budapest, she trained at Pazmany Peter Medical School. In 1949, she received an International Student Service Award to study in Canada. Three years later, she received her medical degree from Queen’s University Medical School in Ontario, and followed that with a Residency in Internal Medicine at Queen Mary Veterans Hospital. Shortly after, she came to the United States and married Dr. Thomas Detre. In 1956, she moved to Yale University where she specialized in Biometry, the application of statistics to the biological sciences. In 1960, Dr. Katherine Detre traveled to Hiroshima, Japan to study heart disease. Returning to Yale, she earned a Master of Public Health Degree in 1964, and a doctorate in 1967. Today, Dr. Detre serves as a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2000, she was awarded a major grant for an expansive study of coronary artery disease and diabetes. The research spans forty areas nationwide, and includes three thousand patients. Recently, she received the highest honor awarded by the University; that of “Distinguished Professor.” The prestigious title honors her “extraordinary, internationally-recognized, scholarly achievement.”