Professor Pearce has recently established, and been appointed Director, of the Centre for Public Health Research at the Massey University Wellington Campus. Since the completion of his PhD in epidemiology in 1985 he has been engaged in a wide range of public health research activities. During 1980-1988 his main research interest was in occupational epidemiology, and during this time he co-authored the leading textbook of occupational epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press in 1989. In 1988 he co-founded the Wellington Asthma Research Group (WARG) at the Wellington School of Medicine. He conducted a wide range of research projects including the identification of the role of the asthma drug fenoterol in the New Zealand asthma mortality epidemic, studies of the management of asthma in the community, and more recently studies of the causes of the increases in asthma prevalence in New Zealand and worldwide. He has authored a textbook of asthma epidemiology which was published by Oxford University Press in 1998. His new Centre will be conducting a wide range of public health research including respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes, Maori health, Pacific health and occupational and environmental health research.