Welcome to the Susan Rosenblatt Lectureship

Mrs. Rosenblatt with her husband Stanley, in a Miami courtroom in 1999 during jury selection in their class-action tobacco suit. Al Diaz/Miami Herald

Susan Rosenblatt, with her husband and law partner, Stanley Rosenblatt, took on Big Tobacco in two block-buster Florida cases in the mid-1990s. The first case was on behalf of non-smoking flight attendants against cigarette companies because of the harm caused to their health from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in their work environment. After four months of trial, the tobacco companies settled for $300,000,000.00. The settlement enabled Susan and Stanley to create the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, Inc. – FAMRI – an independent, not-for-profit foundation sponsoring medical and scientific research to combat the diseases caused by exposure to tobacco smoke.

The second case was brought on behalf of injured smokers in Florida, including Dr. Howard Engle, the pediatrician for most of the Rosenblatt’s nine children.. The flight attendant case helped end smoking on airlines, while the case on behalf of Florida residents injured by smoking resulted in a $144.8 billion jury award, the highest verdict in American history. That award was vacated but the Florida Supreme Court allowed class members to benefit from important and binding findings from the Engle jury.

Sadly, Susan passed away in 2021at 70 from acute myeloid leukemia. This lectureship, named in her honor, will seek to honor and extend the work she and her husband began with a focus on advancing cancer control and prevention research.

About the Lectureship

The lectureship will feature prominent leaders in the field who will address important cancer control and prevention topics, exchange the latest scientific information, and motivate a new generation of clinician-scientists to use their skills to advance efforts to reduce the burden of cancer in society.  Highlighting current scientific developments and recent advances in tobacco-related cancers allows for discussions regarding basic, translational, clinical, and population cancer research. While geared toward clinicians and scientists, this lectureship will feature timely topics presented in a way that should be of interest to everyone. The Rosenblatt family will be involved in helping to identify speakers and ensure that the lectureship is done in a way that truly honors Susan’s contributions to cancer control, public health, and the legal profession.