Philip J. Landrigan, MD

Dr. Landrigan teaches epidemiology and/or environmental medicine at the University of Global Health Equity in Butaro, Rwanda, and mentoring Harvard students, trainees, and faculty. 

The 1993 National Academy of Science report on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children that Dr. Landrigan directed was critical in informing policy makers of children’s unique vulnerabilities to pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the environment. It triggered a paradigm shift in risk assessment and provided the blueprint for the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the major law governing pesticide use in the US, and the only federal environmental law that contains explicit provisions for the protection of children’s health.

More recently, Dr. Landrigan has been a leader in the development and implementation of the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health ever launched in the United States.

Dr. Landrigan has also been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. By raising awareness of the negative health consequences that resulted from exposure at the World Trade Center, Dr. Landrigan contributed to passage in 2010 of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Act, which authorized five more years of health monitoring and medical treatment for the rescue workers and responders at Ground Zero.

Recently, Dr. Landrigan has been appointed Dean for Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He will be involved in leading medical student programs in global health and building strong ties to the health systems of developing nations.

Prior to joining Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1985, Dr. Landrigan served at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He established the environmental epidemiology unit at CDC that has grown into the National Center for Environmental Health. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service.