Dedman College recently honored Robert Ware Haley with its 2008 Distinguished Graduate award.

Haley is currently researching Gulf War syndrome in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Haley has helped define the symptoms of Gulf War syndrome and improved hospital care for Gulf War veterans with the syndrome.

“The formative influences in my career have been my family, SMU faculty who nurtured me and a liberal arts education,” Haley said during the awards celebration.

Dedman Executive Board member Robert Mayer nominated Haley for the award, saying, “Dr. Haley has had an outstanding medical and research career with a clear record of leadership. He also has maintained strong ties to SMU.”

Haley, who graduated from SMU in 1967, is the director and founder of the Division of Epidemiology in the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas’s Department of Internal Medicine and is the U.S. Armed Forces Veterans Distinguished Chair for Medical Research Honoring America’s Gulf War Veterans.

He holds bachelor’s degree in philosophy and social sciences from SMU and a master’s degree from UT Southwestern. He is a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and of the American College of Physicians. He has served as senior editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology, a commissioned officer of the U.S. Public Health Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and president of the Dallas County Medical Society.