Facts

• The Department has 82 students, including 55 doctoral candidates.  We also have approximately 70 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scholars. 
• Students represent 12 nations; 43% of degree candidates are foreign nationals.
• The Department has 33 primary faculty members; eleven faculty members have tenure.
• The Department offers 49 regular courses and 20 continuing education courses.
• The Department also supports:

• THE KRESGE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
• THE HARVARD EDUCATION AND RESEARCH CENTER FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
• THE PROGRAM IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT-WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
• THE PROGRAM IN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND HUMAN HABITATION
• THE JOHN B. LITTLE CENTER FOR RADIATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES
• THE LIBERTY MUTUAL-HARVARD PROGRAM IN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
• THE BIOIMAGING LABORATORIES
• THE PROGRAM IN WATER AND HEALTH

• The Department's environmental outreach includes work with New England area schools, communities, workers, unions, and corporations.
• Collaborative environmental and occupational health studies are taking place in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

• The Department has 2 endowed senior professorships:  1) the Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professorship; and 2) the Akira Yamaguchi Professorship in Environmental Health and Human Habitation.  There is also on endowed junior chair, the Mark and Catherine Winkler Assistant/Associate Professor of Environmental Health.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY:

The expertise of the faculty, students, and staff give the Department of Environmental Health the capability to address complex environmental problems and to provide training at 5 critical levels:

• Exposure assessment research answers too questions such as:  What concentrations of toxins are present in air, water, and food?  What activities and circumstances are associated with the highest exposures?  What is the relationship between exposure to a toxin and the biologically relevant dose a person receives?

• Epidemiologic studies define the connections of environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility with resulting responses, disease, and death.

• Molecular, cellular, and physiological studies reveal how pollutants affect the body and provide mechanistic explanations for environmental diseases.

• Risk analysis integrates scientific finding to help create sound environmental and occupational health policies.

• Risk management and control seek to apply practical, cost-effective strategies to prevent pollution and reduce environmental and occupational health hazards in cooperation with government, industry, workers, and communities. 

Note: This page is under construction and is no means a substitution for the official HSPH Registar Catalog.
Click here to go to the official Registar's page.

Copyright, 2001,  President and Fellows of Harvard College Updated 5 November 2001