Environmental Health Sciences

Along with providing education and training, department of Environmental Health Sciences faculty and researchers have achieved national and international reputations for excellence in their respective fields of research and expertise. Short summaries of faculty are detailed below.

Department Chair

Howard Hu, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D.
Environmental epidemiology, heavy metals, gene-environment and epigenetic-environment interactions; nutrient-toxicant interactions; early life origins of chronic disease; children's environmental health; hypertension, renal dysfunction, cognitive declines, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, neurodevelopment; environment, chemical sensitivities, global climate change and health.

Core Faculty

	Niladri Basu, Ph.D. Ecotoxicology, fish and wildlife sentinels, neurochemical biomarkers, ecosystem health, water quality and risk assessment of legacy and emerging pollutants
	Stuart Batterman, Ph.D. Exposure assessment, biological monitoring, human health risk and environmental impact assessment, innovative measurement techniques for air pollutants, and environmental policy including indoor and ambient air quality, hazardous waste and drinking water.
	Sergei Chernyak, Ph.D. Fate of organic contaminants in water, air and biota, their impact on human health, and the development of highly sensitive techniques for sampling and analyzing organic contaminants.
	Suzanne M. Cole, Ph.D. Dietary assessment, genetic analysis of health-related complex traits; role of lifestyle factors in the development of type 2 diabetes among adolescents.
	Dana Dolinoy, Ph.D. Environmental epigenetics/epigenomics, developmental origins of adult disease, role of diet and nutrition in modulating chemical exposure and epigenetic events including DNA methylation and chromatin structure.
	J. Timothy Dvonch, Ph.D. Exposure assessment and health effects of air pollution, with a focus on chemical composition of airborne particles and air pollution source identification.
	Alfred Franzblau, M.D. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, biological monitoring of methanol exposure, occupational neurological disease, and occupational respiratory disease.
	Theresa Han-Markey, M.S. Adult and pediatric parenteral and enteral nutrition support; design, production and delivery of metabolic research diets.
	Craig Harris, Ph.D. Mammalian developmental toxicology and biochemical mechanisms of teratogenesis; the role of biochemical defenses in developing rat conceptus that might influence the incidence and severity of dysmorphogenesis.
	Howard Hu, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D. Environmental epidemiology, heavy metals, gene-environment and epigenetic-environment interactions; nutrient-toxicant interactions; early life origins of chronic disease; children's environmental health; hypertension, renal dysfunction, cognitive declines, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, neurodevelopment; environment, chemical sensitivities, global climate change and health.
	Olivier Jolliet, Ph.D. Environmental health risks and impacts, multi-media fate&exposure modelling, Indoor and outdoor intake fractions, Life Cycle risks of chemicals, pesticides, contaminated sites, waste and trade. Life Cycle Assessment of new technologies, corporate risks.
	Gerald Keeler, Ph.D. Trace elements in the environment with a focus on mercury: sources, chemistry, transport and deposition; air pollution health effects and exposure assessment; air pollution meteorology and chemistry.
	Rita Loch-Caruso, Ph.D. Female reproductive toxicology, with a particular focus on environmental pollutant risks for normal and timely childbirth; development of human tissue culture methods for assessment of toxicant risks for parturition; physiologic, cellular and molecular
	Peter Mancuso, Ph.D. Inflammation and infection of the lung, arachidonic acid metabolism in alveolar macrophages and neutrophils, role of eicosanoids in pulmonary host defense, malnutrition, host defense mechanisms in bacterial pneumonia, leptin and immune function.
	John Meeker, Sc.D., C.I.H. Exposure assessment and epidemiology studies investigating negative health effects associated with exposure to pesticides, PCBs, tobacco smoke, and other chemicals among the general population.
	Masako Morishita, Ph.D. Air pollution, source-to-receptor pathways/health effects of air toxics, and inhalation exposure assessment.
	Jerome Nriagu, Ph.D., D.Sc. Sources, fate and effects of toxic metals in the environment, environmental food contamination, water quality issues in the Great Lakes, history of lead poisoning, environmental justice and environmental health in developing countries.
	Marie S. O'Neill, Ph.D. Environmental epidemiology, air pollution, climate change, environmental equity, international health, cardiovascular mechanisms.
	Sung Kyun Park, Sc.D., M.P.H. Environmental epidemiology of air pollution and heavy metals exposures, oxidative stress and inflammation, cardiovascular disease, age-related disease, gene-environment and nutrient-environment interactions.
	Karen E. Peterson, D.Sc. Nutrition: determinants of intergenerational patterns of growth in mothers and children, design and evaluation of domestic and international surveillance systems, and community-based interventions in low-income, multi-ethnic populations.
	Martin Philbert, Ph.D. Experimental neuropathology, nitrocompound-induced encephalopathies, mitochondrial mechanisms in non-neuronal cell death, development of nano-optical chemical systems, and nanostructure-based imaging of tumors of the head and neck.
	Rudy Richardson, Sc.D., D.A.B.T. Neural injury with applications to neurodegenerative disease and stroke; biomarkers of neurotoxicant exposure, dysfunction and recovery; stereochemistry and structure-activity relationships; chemistry and neurotoxicity of organophosphorus.
	Thomas Robins, M.D., M.P.H. Exposure assessment and disease outcomes, epidemiology of inhaled toxins (coal dust, lead, allergens and ambient air pollutants, metalworking fluid aerosols, DDT); information transfer.
	Laura S. Rozek, Ph.D. Population based studies focusing on the epigenetic, environmental and genetic risk factors that contribute to the development of human cancer; specifically head and neck and colorectal cancers. Gene-environment and epigenetic-environment contributions to the risk of human chronic diseases.
	Eduardo Villamor, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H. Nutritional epidemiology, nutritional determinants of maternal and child health, developmental origins of health and disease, reproductive epidemiology, nutrition and infection.
	Chuanwu Xi, Ph.D. Biofilms, water quality, bio-imaging, molecular microbial ecology, antibiotic resistance, environmental genomics, Acinetobacter and Mycobacterium, infectious diseases, preterm birth, hip-joint infections, urinary tract infections, and metalworking fluids
	Edward T. Zellers, Ph.D. Microfabricated chemical sensor arrays and microanalytical systems for real-time monitoring of workplace contaminants in air and biological media, permeation of organic solvents through protective clothing.

Faculty with Joint Appointments

	James Albers, M.D., Ph.D. Occupational and environmental medicine.
	Stanley Berent, Ph.D. Occupational and environmental medicne.
	Don Chaffin, Ph.D. Ergonomics, industrial hygiene.
	Mitchell Goodsitt, Ph.D. Radiation oncology
	W. Monroe Keyserling, Ph.D. Ergonomics, occupational safety, industrial hygiene
	Theodore Lawrence, Ph.D., M.D. Radiation oncology
	Mats Ljungman, Ph.D. Radiation oncology
	Betzy Lozoff, Ph.D. Iron deficiency anemia in infants and chidl sleep problems
	Ronald Maio, M.D. Occupational injury prevention
	Hal Morgenstern, Ph.D. Musculoskeletal conditions, cancers, neuropsychiatric disorders, nonintentional injuries, cardiovascular disease, psychosocial aspects of disease, occupational and environmental health, research methods, and access to and quality of health care.
	Alnawaz Rehemtulla, Ph.D. Radiation oncology

Lecturers and Adjunct Faculty

	Edward Carney, Ph.D. Developmental toxicology
	Lloyd Dethloff, Ph.D. Pulmonary toxicology and geotoxicology
	B. Bhakhar Gollapudi, Ph.D. Molecular toxicology and geotoxicology
	Harry Grenawitzke, Environmental management
	Judith Henck, Ph.D. Developmental and reproductive toxicology
	Bradley Joseph, Ph.D. Ergonomics, industrial hygiene
	Peter Landrum, Ph.D. Ecological toxicology
	Steve Lindberg, Ph.D. Biogeochemical cycling of mercury
	Joseph Milkos, Ph.D. Radiological health
	Michael Murray, Ph.D. Environmental chemistry, water quality
	Dora Passino-Reader, Ph.D. Environmental toxicology
	Dennis Paustenbach, Ph.D. Risk sciences
	Nicola Pirrone, Ph.D. Atmospheric modeling, mercury recycling
	Louis Radulovic, Ph.D. Drug metabolism, pharmokinetics
	Robert Werner, M.D. Occupational and environmental medicine
	Marie Whybark, Food safety

Emeritus Faculty

	Rolf Deininger, Ph.D. Modeling and predicting the changes of water quality in water distribution systems, regrowth of bacteria in the distribution system, and optimal control of activated sludge plants.
	David H. Garabrant, M.D., M.P.H. Occupational and environmental epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, neuroepidemiology and neurotoxic agents, colon cancer, pancreas cancer, environmental exposure to dioxins.
	Richard Garrison, Ph.D., C.I.H., C.S.P. Ventilation to control atmospheric hazards for work in confined spaces, with applications of computational fluid dynamics to dilution ventilation, and experimental ventilation studies.
	Robert H. Gray, Ph.D.
	Rolf Hartung, Ph.D.
	Steven Levine, Ph.D., C.I.H. Environmental safety and health (ES&H) management and policy, including trans-national policy issues, international standards and GATT-legal means of ensuring system quality, international harmonization of ES&H management system assessment.
	Khalil H. Mancy, Ph.D. Assessment and management of environmental health risks, water supply and sanitation, and waste water reuse applications
	James E. Martin, Ph.D. Radiation protection and and assessment of public health impacts of radiation and radionuclides; landfill simulation studies of radioactive and hazardous wastes, radiotracers; radon assessment and mitigation.
	Peter Meier, Ph.D. Impact of contaminants on the aquatic community; biogenic transport of contaminants; habitat and ecological assessment; biomonitoring and aquatic toxicity bioassays; interactions of the aquatic community with the air-water interface (microlayer).
	Arthur Oleinick, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. Research: Factors that affect the duration of missed work-time following work injuries and medical utilization for such injuries. Teaching: occupational health law, including workers' compensation, workplace rights of the disabled, age, gender and race.
	James Vincent, Ph.D., D.Sc. Aerosol science, experimental fluid mechanics, air pollution control engineering, dust sampling and control in workplaces, exposure assessment, inhalation research, pharmacokinetic and dosimetric modeling for inhaled aerosols.