Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Research. Populations. Prevention.

Division of Environmental Health Sciences

Division Description

The Division of Environmental Health Sciences within the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine supports research, teaching and service in environmental health. Environmental Health Sciences is a highly interdisciplinary field integrating perspectives from a wide range of research areas to address diverse environmental health problems. Faculty from the Division of Environmental Health Sciences collaborate on research on environmental health and work with students interested in the problems of environmental health. In particular, there is an MPH program with a concentration on Environmental Health. This MPH provides students with the skills needed to prevent, identify and address environmental public health problems.

Please see the following video describing the Environmental Health Sciences graduate programs in the department.



Faculty affiliated with the Division and information regarding their research are listed in the links below.


Students interested in training for a research career in environmental health should consider the MS and PhD programs in epidemiology. These programs can be customized to focus on research in environmental health. For those students who are more inclined toward public health practice, the MPH degree would be of interest. An overview of the MPH program is found on the MPH description page and on the concentration in Environmental Health page.


For more information about the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, please contact:

Dr. James Olson
Director, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Phone: (716) 829-2319
Email: jolson@buffalo.edu


Environmental Epidemiology

Name Research Interests
Matthew R. Bonner, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Director, Environmental Health MPH Program
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
environmental and occupational epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, pesticides, air pollution, radon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates
Richard V. Lee, MD
Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Social and Preventive Medicine
Chief, Division of Geographic Medicine
Chief, Division of Maternal & Adolescent Medicine
 
Lina Mu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
environmental epidemiology, cancer epidemiology
Kirsten B. Moysich, PhD
Professor
Department of Cancer Prevention and Control, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
role of inflammation in ovarian cancer, radiation exposure and subsequent reproductive health indicators, environmental risk factors for breast cancer
Pavani Kalluri Ram, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
child survival, handwashing, household water disinfection, global health, diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections, infectious disease epidemiology
Carole B. Rudra, PhD, MPH
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
ambient air pollution, preterm delivery, preeclampsia
William L. Scheider, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
relationship of food production system with the environment and health, control of food hazards or food safety, food security, environmental factors and Parkinson's disease

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Toxicology / Environmental and Occupational Health

Name Research Interests
Richard W. Browne, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences, and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
clinical biochemistry of oxidative stress (OS) in human health and disease
James B. Knaak, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
 
Paul J. Kostyniak, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology , and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Director, Toxicology Research Center
toxicology of heavy metals, chlorinated organics, and antidote development
Marilyn E. Morris, PhD
Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 
James R. Olson, PhD
Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Director, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
Associate Director, Toxicology Research Center
Associate Director, UB Environment and Society Institute
assessing the health risks and biomarkers of exposure, effect and susceptibility to organophosphate (OP) pesticides and persistent halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons
Richard A. Rabin, PhD
Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
neurotoxic, hepatotoxic interactions between alcohol use/abuse and exposure to chemicals used in industy, agriculture; various molecular, biochemical, cellular, behavioral techniques used in combination with model systems, including cells in culture and zebrafish, to assess interaction, determine underlying mechanisms for toxicity
Xuefeng Ren, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine

study of environmental mutagens and carcinogens, mechanism of carcinogenesis, genetic/epigenetic biomarkers of environment toxicants, tumor suppressor genes, exposure biology and exposome
Jerome A. Roth, PhD
Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
mechanism of action of manganese in producing neuronal cell death, resulting in a Parkinson-like syndrome
Harish Sikka, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
 
Aiming Yu, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
function of human cytochrome P450 (CYP2D6, CYP3A4) drug-metabolizing enzymes, ATP-binding cassette (ABC) membrane transporters (BCRP/ABCG2, MRP1/ABCC1) in cellular defense against xenobiotic drugs and environmental agents

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Environmental Engineering

Name  
Joseph F. Atkinson, PhD, PE
Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Director, Great Lakes Program
 
James N. Jensen, PhD, MSPH
Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Director, Environmental Science Program
 
Alan Rabideau, PhD
Professor
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
 
John E. Van Benschoten, PhD
Professor
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
 
A. Scott Weber, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Director, New York State Center for Hazardous Waste Management
 

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Environmental Chemistry

Name Research Interests
Diana S. Aga, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
 
Luis A. Colón, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Chemistry
chemical analysis at the micro/nano scales, bioanalytical chemistry, development of chromatographic materials, environmental chemistry, liquid separation techniques (capillary electrophoresis and liquid chromatography)
Joseph A. Gardella, PhD
Professor
Department of Chemistry
 
Janet R. Morrow, PhD
Professor and Associate Chair
Department of Chemistry
 
Troy D. Wood, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
 

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Environmental Geography

Name Research Interests
Jared Aldstadt, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
methods for understanding the spatial, spatiotemporal patterns of disease; using spatial analysis, geospatial technologies to improve sampling methods and to better characterize relationships between health and environmental factors
Ling Bian, PhD
Professor
Department of Geography
geographic information science (GIS), individual-based spatially explicit epidemiological modeling and interoperability of environmental models
David M. Mark, PhD
SUNY Distinguished Professor
Department of Geography
Director, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
 
Peter A. Rogerson, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Geography
 
Eun-Hye Enki Yoo, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
fundamental issues in GIScience, spatial scale, uncertainty modeling, spatio-temporal modeling; public health and environmental modeling and spatial hedonic modeling, using geostatistics and spatial statistics

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Environmental Law

Name  
Errol E. Meidinger, JD, PhD
Professor and Vice Dean for Research and Faculty Development
University at Buffalo Law School

 
R Nils Olsen, JD
Professor and Vice Dean for Research and Faculty Development
University at Buffalo Law School
 

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Other Departments

Name Research Interests
Randolph L. Carter, PhD
Professor and Associate Chair
Department of Biostatistics
Director, Population Health Observatory

 
Atif Awad, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

 
Heather Orom, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Behavior
psychosocial adjustment, health behavior in communities affected by man-made or technological disasters; positive, negative effects of family, community dynamics on adjustment and exposure to asbestos; designing interventions to improve health, well-being in patients with asbestos-related disease
Donald W. Rowe, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine
Director, Office of Public Health Practice and Public Health Liaison
water, land use conflict and regulatory reform

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