News
"25 Years Later, Studying the Health Effects of 9/11"
Thursday, September 10, 2026
The September 11, 2001, World Trade Center (WTC) disaster created unprecedented environmental and public health challenges. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, first responders, workers, and Lower Manhattan residents were exposed to a complex mixture of dust, smoke, and debris from the collapsed buildings and fires. Over the past quarter-century, University of Rochester Medicine has contributed to efforts to understand and address those risks through environmental health research, community education, and long-term occupational health care.
“The World Trade Center research is part of a long legacy of environmental health research at URochester, where scientists have worked for decades to understand how environmental exposures—including air pollution and other airborne toxicants—affect human health,” says Paige Lawrence, PhD, chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences. “One of the challenges in environmental health is that the effects of an exposure are not always immediate or straightforward. This is a powerful example of why sustaining research matters and how environmental health research connects laboratory science, population health, clinical care, and community needs.”
Read More: "25 Years Later, Studying the Health Effects of 9/11""The plastic waste overtaking New York—and the people trying to curb it"
Thursday, September 3, 2026
“There are so many questions remaining about how different plastics get into, move through, and change in the environment and what this means for the amounts, sizes, and types of microplastics in the environment that people might be exposed to,” says Katrina Korfmacher, a professor of environmental medicine and of public health sciences. “It’s important to figure out what kinds of micro- and nanoplastics get into the human body and how, so we can focus our research on realistic exposures.”
Research efforts from URochester’s Jacques Robert, a professor of microbiology and immunology and of environmental medicine, and Anne S. Meyer, a professor of biology, are also mentioned.
Read More: "The plastic waste overtaking New York—and the people trying to curb it"
Elaine Hill Selected for Prestigious Leadership Fellowship
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
The latest in the growing list of University of Rochester Medicine faculty selected for the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) fellowship is Elaine Hill, PhD.
A burgeoning research leader on both the River and Health Sciences campuses, Hill is dean’s professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Sciences, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and professor of Economics. Her work focuses on clinically- and policy-relevant research across the life course, with a particular emphasis on maternal and child health.
“Elaine is someone who has always been on the fast track,” said Ann Dozier, PhD, former chair of Public Health Sciences, who nominated Hill for the fellowship. “She has shown her leadership potential by heading impactful research teams, by bringing people together from across departments, and by her dedication to mentoring undergraduate students, graduate students, and junior faculty. She is particularly noteworthy for her commitment to mentoring and creating opportunities for people traditionally underrepresented in medicine. As a researcher, she connects the dots in unique ways and asks questions others might not think of.”
The Hedwig van Ameringen ELAM fellowship at Drexel University College of Medicine prepares women for senior leadership roles in schools of medicine, dentistry, public health, and pharmacy.
Dedicated to developing the professional and personal skills required to lead and manage in today’s complex health care environment, the part-time, yearlong program offers special attention to the unique challenges women in leadership face. It is designed for those at the associate or full professor level who demonstrate the greatest potential for assuming executive leadership positions within the next five years.
Read More: Elaine Hill Selected for Prestigious Leadership FellowshipStudy Examines How Pregnancy May Help the Body Eliminate Mercury from Fish
Monday, March 16, 2026
Researchers at the University of Rochester are investigating whether natural biological changes during pregnancy help reduce a fetus’s exposure to mercury. The project will examine how the maternal gut microbiome and pregnancy-related physiological changes may increase the body’s ability to eliminate methylmercury, the toxic form of mercury commonly found in fish, before it reaches the developing fetus.
“Much of environmental health research focuses on identifying risks,” said Matt Rand, PhD, associate professor of Environmental Medicine and the study’s principal investigator. “What excites us about this project is the opportunity to understand the body’s natural defenses. Namely, how pregnancy itself may help protect the fetus from environmental exposures like mercury.”
Building on decades of mercury research
Concern about prenatal mercury exposure has driven decades of research into how fish consumption affects fetal brain development. One of the most consequential efforts is the Seychelles Child Development Study, a landmark international research program that has followed families in the Seychelles for decades.
That work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester, has found no measurable harm to children’s neurodevelopment in a population that consumes roughly ten times more fish than in the United States. These and other findings have helped shift public-health guidance toward encouraging pregnant people to eat fish to obtain key nutrients important for fetal brain development.
Still, questions remain about how the body manages mercury exposure during pregnancy.
Read More: Study Examines How Pregnancy May Help the Body Eliminate Mercury from FishThe Society of Toxicology Recognizes Professors with Awards
Thursday, February 5, 2026
Paige Lawrence, the Wright Family Research Professor and the director of the Institute for Human Health and the Environment, received the Society of Toxicology Education Award.
Alison Elder, an associate professor of environmental medicine, received the society’s Translational Impact Award.
Congratulations to both.