Edwin VanWijngaarden, Ph.D.

Dr. van Wijngaarden received an MSc in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and a PhD in Epidemiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology. He is Chief of the Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts primarily in the areas of environmental and occupational health, and in neurocognitive and neurobehavioral outcomes. He has extensive experience in managing and conducting epidemiologic studies, in leading interdisciplinary research teams, and in academic leadership.

Dr. van Wijngaarden's primary research efforts have focused on the influence of environmental exposures on cognitive outcomes in children and adults. He leads the Seychelles Child Development Study (SCDS) which for over 30 years has investigated the impact of pre- and postnatal methylmercury exposure on child development, Current SCDS research investigates how prenatal nutritional factors and genetics influence associations between prenatal methylmercury exposure and developmental outcomes, and examines longitudinal associations of cumulative postnatal methylmercury exposure with neurodevelopment over 24 years of follow up.

In addition to conducting primary research, he has significant collaborative research experience in clinical and population health research and has secondary appointments in various clinical and basic science departments. He co-directs the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) key function which provides support and a central source for technical collaboration to investigators for appropriate study design and statistical analysis in clinical and translational science research.

Dr. van Wijngaarden also has substantial educational experience. He is director of the Doctoral and Master's Programs in Epidemiology, leads undergraduate programs in Epidemiology and Environmental Health, and co-directs the MS in Sustainability. Additionally, he directs the newly-established and innovative Health and Epidemiology Advanced Learning (HEAL) program, a dual degree program in which students who are accepted as an undergraduate are also given conditional assurance of admission to the MS in Epidemiology. He has mentored more than 80 graduate students in public health and numerous undergraduate students. He has also mentored eight junior faculty members, and is a mentor for NIH-funded training programs in Toxicology, Environmental Biostatistics and Oral Science.

Dr. van Wijngaarden has served in various editorial roles for peer-reviewed journals, and in consulting and expert review roles at institutional, state and national levels, including study sections for federal research programs. He was a member of the chartered Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency.