Welcome to the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences (EMPHS)

A message from the Chair, B. Paige Lawrence, Ph.D.

Our Mission is to accelerate discoveries and promote innovative solutions that prevent disease, reduce health disparities, and improve human health across the lifespan.

The department includes a dynamic group of faculty, staff, students, fellows, and medical residents who are dedicated to the improvement of health and health care research, learning, clinical care, and community partnerships. We lead and support a broad range of activities that encompass the complex contributions of social, environmental, and occupational factors to health and disease in order to improve disease prevention, intervention and treatment strategies, and to improve health and the well-being of local, national, and global communities.

Active research programs range across the lifespan from maternal-child health to healthy aging, and include disease mechanisms, prevention, and treatments. Research integrates molecular and cellular information with population science and policy research to accelerate the pace that information moves from discovery to action. Research includes clinical investigation, epidemiology, environmental health, health services, mechanistic toxicology, preventive medicine, and public health.

The department is also the administrative homebase for several centers and institutes that reach across the University enterprise, including the Institute for Human Health & the Environment, Environmental Health Sciences Center, Nicotine & Tobacco Research Core, Lake Ontario Microplastics Center, Qualitative & Mixed Methods Research Center, Finger Lakes Occupational Health Services Clinic, and Life Sciences Learning Center

We are also deeply committed to education and training the next generation, and developing professionals instilled with technical acumen, critical thinking skills, and dedication to public service. Offerings include a Preventive Medicine Residency, PhD in Toxicology, Epidemiology, and Health Services Research, MS in Public Health, Clinical Investigation, Epidemiology and Health Services Research, as well as Advanced Certificates in Analytic Epidemiology, Health Services Research, Clinical Research Methods, Public Health, and Experimental Therapeutics.

Overall, our department offers a collaborative environment of learners, faculty, and staff that welcomes different perspectives and encourages innovation. Our core values align with the principles of ICARE – Inclusion, Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence that have been adopted across URochester Medicine and with URochester’s Meliora values.

I invite you to explore our website to learn more about who we are.

Team Science Showcase: The People and Partnerships Moving Microplastics Research Forward 

Public concern about microplastics and human health is growing. Learn how University of Rochester scientists and community partners are advancing research through interdisciplinary teams and innovative collaborations.

 Read the full story →