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Biography
Dr Martina Pötschke-Langer MD, MA (born 1951) is a German public health activist.
Pötschke-Langer studied at the University of Heidelberg. She became head of the Cancer Prevention Unit at the German Cancer Research Center (" Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum") in 1997. She became an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1999 and in 2002 was made head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control.
She was awarded the Order of the Cross of Merit on Ribbon by the Federal Republic of Germany in 2007, ofr her work on cancer prevention and non-smokers' rights. She also received the WHO's Tobacco Free World Award for her "outstanding contributions to public health", in 1999; and jointly with her colleagues in 2007 and 2011. She is an honorary member of the German Association of Pulmonology.