Andrea Baccarelli, an eminent environmental well being sciences scholar, will develop into the following dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Well being, Harvard President Claudine Homosexual introduced on Wednesday.

Baccarelli is at the moment the Leon Hess Professor of Environmental Well being Sciences and Epidemiology on the Columbia College Mailman College of Public Well being, the place he additionally serves as chair of the Division of Environmental Well being Sciences. He beforehand served as an affiliate professor on the Chan College of Public Well being. He’ll develop into dean on Jan. 1, succeeding Michelle Williams, who served as dean via the 2022-2023 educational 12 months.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Andrea Baccarelli again to Harvard,” Homosexual stated. “He brings a transparent understanding of present challenges and rising alternatives on the Chan College, a deep appreciation of its tradition and strengths, and a recent perspective on the way it can contribute to native, nationwide, and worldwide conversations round bettering public well being and fairness.”

“Being named dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Well being is a profound honor,” Baccarelli stated. “We stand at a pivotal second in public well being historical past, going through challenges and alternatives that demand collective motion and revolutionary considering. Whether or not it’s the threats of pandemics, the complexities of psychological well being, the multifaceted challenges of environmental and social determinants of well being, or new alternatives supplied by synthetic intelligence, knowledge science, and the most recent discoveries in human biology, collectively we will craft options and drive change. I’m keen to steer and study alongside the devoted college students, trainees, workers, and college on the Chan College.”

A scholar with broad pursuits that vary from basic biology to social science to bioinformatics, Baccarelli has served in his present roles at Columbia since 2016. There he additionally directs the Laboratory of Precision Environmental Biosciences and the NIH-funded Heart for Environmental Well being and Justice in Northern Manhattan.

Because the chair of Columbia Mailman’s Environmental Well being Sciences Division, which goals to know and mitigate the impression of environmental elements and local weather change on well being, Baccarelli has guided efforts to extend the variety of the division’s school and college students and introduce revolutionary academic applications. He helped discovered Careers via Mentoring and coaching in Omics and Knowledge for Early-stage investigators (Profession MODE), a nationwide program that gives coaching for early profession biomedical scientists making the transition from postdoctoral to college positions. He served as director of an NIH-funded coaching program for predoctoral college students and postdoctoral fellows. He labored to launch a brand new grasp of science diploma program in knowledge science for environmental well being in an effort to deal with the rising demand for experience on large and sophisticated knowledge sources. Sensing a necessity for analysis coaching, he additionally based and directs Columbia’s Abilities for Well being and Analysis Professionals (SHARP) program, which presents boot camps led by subject specialists to show in-demand analysis abilities and strategies to greater than 1,000 investigators in any respect profession ranges per 12 months.

In his capability as an instructional chief, Baccarelli has embraced inclusion and collaboration and labored to advertise transparency, belief, and respect. He has been an advocate for variety, along with his division attaining gender stability throughout school ranks and a fourfold enhance in school members who establish as underrepresented minorities. He’s additionally a well known trainer and mentor, recognized for fostering a various and supportive surroundings the place everybody can flourish and do their greatest work.

“Andrea is an impressive scientist, educator, and chief,” stated Provost Alan M. Garber, who co-led the search with Homosexual. “He has almost a decade of expertise main one of many nation’s most extremely regarded environmental well being sciences departments. He’s recognized each for his multidisciplinary method to analysis and for his collaborative management fashion. I’m assured that he’ll serve the College, the College, and the sphere of public well being with nice distinction.”

Earlier than his time at Columbia Mailman, Baccarelli served on the Harvard College of Public Well being school as an affiliate professor within the Division of Environmental Well being from 2010 to 2016. Beforehand, he spent six years as assistant professor within the Environmental and Occupational Well being Division on the College of Milan.

Born and raised in Italy, Baccarelli earned his medical diploma in 1995 on the College of Perugia, the place he additionally accomplished a residency in endocrinology. He quickly developed an curiosity in epidemiology and environmental well being. His first research checked out individuals affected by the 1976 Seveso catastrophe, a chemical plant explosion in Northern Italy that uncovered residents to excessive ranges of dioxin, a recognized carcinogen and endocrine disruptor. He accomplished his Ph.D. in occupational well being and industrial hygiene, specializing in environmental and molecular epidemiology on the College of Milan in 2003, and obtained his grasp of science in epidemiology on the College of Turin in 2005. From 2000 to 2004, he was a postdoctoral fellow on the Nationwide Most cancers Institute in Maryland.

An epigeneticist and board-certified endocrinologist, Baccarelli is an professional on the mechanisms that hyperlink exposures to environmental pollution to human illness. His analysis pursuits embody epigenetics, mitochondriomics, and computational epigenomics. Baccarelli’s work has supported the event of worldwide greatest practices for air air pollution management by a number of companies worldwide, and his findings have served as the premise for the Environmental Safety Company’s resolution to implement stricter pointers for human publicity. He has been featured within the annual Net of Science listing of probably the most influential, extremely cited scientists of the previous 10 years. He was elected to the Nationwide Academy of Drugs in 2020, and he at the moment serves because the president of the Worldwide Society of Environmental Epidemiology.

In saying the appointment, Homosexual expressed her gratitude to Professor Jane Kim, who has served as interim dean of the Chan College since July 1. “Jane continues her lengthy file of outstanding service to this group,” Homosexual stated, “and we’re so grateful for her management as interim dean.”

Homosexual additionally expressed her gratitude to those that supplied enter and recommendation throughout the search. “Together with Provost Garber, I’d like to increase a particular because of the college advisory committee and different members of the Chan College group who supplied important views all through this course of and helped information us towards such a optimistic consequence.”