Biographical entry: Opit, Louis Jonah (1927 - 1998)
Professor
- Born
- 1927
South Australia, Australia - Died
- 1998
England - Occupation
- Academic
- Alternative Names
- Opit, Lou
Summary
Lou Opit was professor of Social Medicine at Monash University, a position which he held from 1976 to 1985. After leaving Monash, he returned to health services research at the University of Kent in Canterbury where he was Professor of Community Medicine and Director of the Centre for Health Service Studies. He retired in 1992.
Details
Lou Opit studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1949. His career path included surgeon, biochemist, mathematician and health services researcher.
After an initial creer in clinical surgery, Opit then moved into mathematics, graduating from Warwick University in 1969 with a first in pure mathematics. Following this, his interests turned to epidemiology and social medicine, leading to appointments in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
In the late 1970s, a major survey on Drug use was conducted by Irving Saulwick on behalf of Opit.