Dr. Francine Laden is an environmental epidemiologist, who has authored approximately 300 peer-reviewed publications focusing on environmental epidemiology of chronic diseases, including cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Her research has or is concentrated on the following categories of exposures: air pollution (from ambient and occupational sources), persistent organic pollutants (POPs; organochlorines), secondhand smoke, temperature, and the contextual environment (e.g. built environment and green spaces). She is specifically interested in the geographic distribution of disease risk, incorporating geographic information system technology into large cohort studies to explore risk factors such as the built environment and indicators of socioeconomic status, as well as air pollution. She has published key papers on the association of ambient particulate matter and all cause and cardiovascular mortality in the landmark Harvard Six Cities Study and the Nurses’ Health Study and on the association of diesel exhaust exposures and lung cancer mortality in the trucking industry.
Dr. Laden is a Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Associate Chair of the Department of Environmental Health and the Director of the NIH/NIEHS T32 Program for Training in Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. She received her ScD in Epidemiology and MS in Environmental Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Laden is a past member of the EPA Science Advisory Board and Past President of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology.
MS, 1993
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
ScD, 1998
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
John Goldsmith Award2023
International Society of Environmental Epidemiology
Marianne Wessling-Resnick Memorial Mentoring Award2022
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Committee for Concerns for Women Faculty
John A. Rock Scholar honorarium2019
Louisiana State University of Public Health
Alice Hamilton Lectureship2011
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Committee for Concerns for Women Faculty
Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute2002
Young Investigators Award
Sigma Xi, Associate Member1998-2023
National Scientific Honor Society
National Research Award in Cancer Epidemiology1994-1996
National Cancer Institute