April 22nd 2010

Appointment of CR President Philip Landrigan as Mt. Sinai Dean for Global Health

The Collegium Ramazzini congratuates its President, Dr. Phil Landrigan, on his recent appointment of as Dean for Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (NY, NY, USA). Dr. Landrigan, Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine, is an internationally recognized pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine. He has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides.

As Dean for Global Health, Dr. Landrigan will oversee the growth of Mount Sinai’s Global Health Program into one of the nation’s leading medical school global health programs, thus positioning Mount Sinai to address the most pressing problems of health and disease confronting the world’s population today. In order to accomplish this ambitious goal, Dr. Landrigan will:

Create a forum for collaboration among Mount Sinai physicians, scientists and trainees interested or involved in global health

Build on the long tradition of public health and community medicine that Mount Sinai has established locally in New York City and extend this tradition around the world

Extend Mount Sinai’s strong base of educational programs in global health

Expand the institution’s current research portfolio in global health

Foster partnerships with other academic medical centers in developing nations

Pursue philanthropy in support of global health

Secure a World Health Organization (WHO) designation as a WHO Collaborating Center

Dr. Landrigan has been a member of the Mount Sinai faculty since 1985, and has served as Chair since 1990. He is also the Director of Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center, which conducts research on the environmental causes of disease in children, including asthma, learning disabilities, autism, obesity, and childhood cancer. He was a leader in the development of the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States. Dr. Landrigan has also been a central figure in the medical and epidemiological studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001.

He has served at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service. His pioneering research on lead toxicity at low levels persuaded the U.S. government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint, actions which have yielded a 90 percent decline in the incidence of childhood lead poisoning over the past 25 years. He has published over 500 scientific papers and five books, and has chaired national committees. Dr. Landrigan was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987.
After receiving his BA from Boston College, Dr. Landrigan earned his MD from Harvard Medical School. He later pursued an MS in Occupational Medicine and Diploma of Industrial Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.