About

The Tobacco Online Policy Seminar (TOPS) is a free multidisciplinary, international forum for research with tobacco policy implications using experimental or quasi-experimental study designs (i.e., with a well-defined counterfactual). TOPS strives to be a respectful, inclusive, and diverse forum, with participants and attendees united around the concept of presenting and learning from tobacco research using study designs capable of producing results with a causal interpretation, with the ultimate goal being the production and sharing of knowledge to develop an effective tobacco policy framework for improving population health. This forum is designed to bring together academics, students, government employees, policy researchers, healthcare professionals, advocates, and funders, with the goal of breaking silos in tobacco policy research and providing a platform for high-quality research to be discussed and disseminated. TOPS Video Introduction

Executive Board*

Director: Mike Pesko, University of Missouri @mikepesko @mikepesko.bsky.social
Member: Michael Darden, Johns Hopkins University
Member: Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, University of Massachusetts Amherst @jhb19.bsky.social
Member: Ce Shang, Ohio State University @Ce_Shang_HE
Member: Justin White, Boston University @justinwhite.bsky.social

Advisory Board

Warren Bickel (in memoriam), Virginia Tech
Michelle Bloch, National Cancer Institute
Alison Breland, Virginia Commonwealth University
John Cawley, Cornell University
Christopher Carpenter, Vanderbilt University
Frank Chaloupka, University of Illinois-Chicago
Kenneth Michael Cummings, Medical University of South Carolina
Dhaval Dave, Bentley University
Cristine Delnevo, Rutgers University
Jeffrey Drope, Johns Hopkins University
Sherry Emery, University of Chicago – NORC
Michael Eriksen, Georgia State University
Jean-François Etter, University of Geneva
Matthew Farrelly, Food and Drug Administration - Center for Tobacco Products
Geoffrey Fong, University of Waterloo
Abigail Friedman, Yale University
Maciej Goniewicz, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Emmanuel Guindon, McMaster University
Scott Halpern, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Hajek, Queen Mary University of London
Robert Hornik, University of Pennsylvania
Prabhat Jha, University of Toronto
Mary Kautz, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Brian King, Food and Drug Administration - Center for Tobacco Products
Ryan Kennedy, Johns Hopkins University
Tessa Langley, University of Nottingham
David Levy, Georgetown University
Rafael Meza, BC Cancer Research
Richard O’Connor, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Barbara Schillo, Truth Initiative
Jody Sindelar, Yale University
Andrew Strasser, University of Pennsylvania
Andy Tan, University of Pennsylvania
James Thrasher, University of South Carolina
Theodore Wagener, Ohio State University

Founding Members

Catherine Maclean, George Mason University
Mike Pesko, University of Missouri
Ce Shang, Ohio State University
Justin White, Boston University



*: Each executive board member is committed to carrying out a strong research program free of tobacco industry influence. To this end, executive board members agree to accept no funding (including payment or reimbursement) or formal participation (e.g., board membership) with the tobacco industry, foundations they support, or individuals or entities that currently consult for the tobacco industry. We define the tobacco industry as any company that manufactures commercial tobacco products or is owned in part or in whole by a commercial tobacco manufacturer. We also agree to list all current and historical funding over the prior 10 years related to tobacco below. Any legally required payments from the tobacco industry (e.g., court depositions) will be disclosed below and donated to an anti-tobacco cause.

• Pesko: National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, American Cancer Society, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, Health Canada, the University of Kentucky’s Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise, and Joseph Saveri Law Firm (for expert witness testimony on harms resulting from alleged Altria-Juul antitrust violations)
• Darden: None
• Hartmann-Boyce: National Institute of Health and Care Research (UK), Cancer Research UK, Cochrane, the British Heart Foundation, the National Institutes of Health Research, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Truth Initiative, and the World Health Organization
• Shang: American Heart Association, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Presbyterian Health Foundation, Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, World Heart Federation
• White: National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, American Cancer Society, California Department of Public Health, California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

This project is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award [R13FD008285] totaling $50,000 with 50% funded by FDA/HHS and $50,000 amount and 50% funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by FDA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.