Commencement Philip J. Landrigan

May 20, 2018

Philip J. Landrigan is dean for global health and professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. He is a crusader for environmental health, known for his decades of work studying and publicizing children’s unique susceptibility to the adverse effects of environmental hazards.

Landrigan’s 1970s research was critical in persuading the Environmental Protection Agency to remove lead from gasoline and paint, resulting in a 95-percent decline in lead poisoning in children in the United States. His research on the effects of pesticides in the diets of infants and children led to the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. He has guided the development and implementation of the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health in the United States. His work investigating the health and environmental consequences of the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, contributed to the passage in 2010 of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Act authorizing extended treatment for rescue workers.

Landrigan also investigates toxic exposures in low- and middle-income nations globally. He has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (with postings in El Salvador and Nigeria) and in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Naval Reserve (with postings in Korea, Ghana and Senegal).

A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Landrigan served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses and as senior advisor on children’s health at the EPA, where he was instrumental in helping to establish a new Office of Children’s Health Protection. His awards include three Navy Commendation Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and the Meritorious Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service. Author of more than 500 scientific papers and five books, he chairs the Lancet-Mount Sinai Global Commission on Pollution and Health. He holds an A.B. from Boston College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and degrees in occupational and industrial health from the University of London.