Research Team

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Dr. Birgit Claus Henn is Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Her research focuses primarily on exposure to toxic metals and their impact on child development. She has examined associations between metals exposure and neurodevelopment in multiple pediatric cohorts worldwide, spanning critical periods of development from prenatal exposure through late childhood. Dr. Claus Henn is currently the PI of an NIEHS Career Development Award to utilize novel statistical approaches for analyzing chemical mixtures data in order to understand neurodevelopmental effects of multiple metals. Other research interests include exposure to pesticides and consumer products, effects of toxicants on birth outcomes, and the development and use of novel biomarkers.

 

Timothy-Downs-150Dr. Timothy Downs is Associate Professor of Environmental Science & Policy at Clark University. He is a specialist in environmental science and engineering with over 25 years field experience designing and managing collaborative projects in the UK, the United States, Latin America and Africa. His research focuses on how humans change the environment, and how those changes impact their health, well being, and the ecosystems they inhabit. He works with diverse social actors to innovate through collaboration, both socially via new networks, and technically via new applications of science and technology.  Downs applies risk and vulnerability science to identify priority problems with stakeholders, GIS and analytics to understand existing social and technical systems, then innovation theory and capacity building practice to design, implement and monitor more sustainable solutions. 

 

0000076810028796869291Dr. Manish Arora is the Vice Chairman of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the Division Chief of Environmental Health, and the founding Director of Exposure Biology at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory. Dr. Arora is an environmental epidemiologist and exposure biologist.  Dr. Arora’s research focuses on effects of prenatal and early childhood chemical exposures on life-long health trajectories. He is known for his work on biomarkers that utilize human deciduous and permanent teeth to reconstruct the timing of exposure to various harmful chemicals and essential nutrients. His methods are being applied to the study of outcomes that are national health priorities, including autism, schizophrenia, and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS).  In recognition of his research, he was awarded the PECASE medal by the office of President Obama.

 

Roberta-White1-150x150Dr. Roberta White is Professor of Environmental Health at BUSPH and was Chair of the department for 14 years (2003-2017).  She is a clinical psychologist and trans-disciplinary scientist whose research focuses on the effects of exposure to industrial pollutants on brain function. Her work uses cognitive and behavioral test measures and neuroimaging techniques to identify pollutant effects on the brain. Combining the fields of public health, behavioral neuroscience, and epidemiology as well as clinical neuropsychology, her work has had significant public health impact in setting standards for occupational exposure to lead, environmental exposure to methylmercury in utero, and acceptance of Gulf War Illness as a physical illness related to chemical exposures in theatre. 

 

YelenaOgneva-Himmelberger-9793-682x1024Dr. Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger is Associate Professor of Geographic Information Science at Clark University.  Her research lies at the intersection of Geographic Information Science, human-environment geography, and public health.  Many of her research projects are driven by local community needs, and involve collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including local government officials, medical professionals, and community organizations. Her research makes unique contributions to the field of environmental justice and equality by proposing new spatially-explicit and statistically-grounded methodologies for assessing human vulnerability in the context of negative technological impact or environmental change.

 

Julia_Bauer10Julia Anglen Bauer is a doctoral candidate in environmental health at BUSPH. She graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago with a Masters of Science in epidemiology in 2015. She worked as a researcher and epidemiologist for the American Dental Association’s Science Institute for three years. During her time there, she assessed a variety of occupational exposures in the field of dentistry (including metals, infectious disease agents and noise) and investigated associations of occupational mercury exposure and neurological disease in dentists. Ms. Bauer enrolled in the environmental health doctoral program in 2015. She is conducting her dissertation research on environmental manganese exposure and children’s neurobehavior.

 

AAEAAQAAAAAAAAkzAAAAJGNhMGJmODg0LTAyMTYtNDJlZC05ZDgxLTNhZmJjNWVjMDE5MA-2Chang Chen is a research assistant in environmental health at BUSPH. He graduated from Brown University with a Masters of Science in biostatistics in 2017. He conducted his master’s thesis research on comparative outcomes of immunochemotherapy regimens in Waldenström macroglobulinaemia.