Meet Cal Scientists: Health Heroes

How are these Cal scientists making lives around the world healthier? Read on to find out!

• Name: Martyn T. Smith
• Position: Professor of toxicology
• Department: School of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences
• Research: My research group is investigating the adverse effects of chemicals on human health by studying the mechanisms by which environmental exposure to contaminants causes disease. Our research is focused on the blood-borne cancers leukemia and lymphoma and the chemicals benzene, arsenic, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Our goal is to improve toxicity testing, hazard identification, and risk assessment by applying “omics” (human genome-based) technologies to develop biomarkers of exposure, early effect, and susceptibility in humans. I hope that our research might lead to faster identification of any negative health impacts related to environmental exposures and perhaps to influence public policy to mitigate future exposures.

• Name: Brenda Eskenazi
• Position: Professor
• Department: School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology
• Research: My research in reproductive and pediatric epidemiology focuses primarily on environmental hazards to reproduction and development. Every day, people are exposed to pesticides, flame retardants, and other chemicals that can adversely affect health without their knowledge, understanding, or consent. My work as a scientist is never boring; it is trans-disciplinary and relevant to the health of children and pregnant women worldwide.

• Name: Kirk R. Smith
• Position: Professor of Global Environmental Health, School of Public Health; directory, Global Health and Environment Program
• Research: My research focuses on environmental and health issues in developing countries, particularly those related to health-damaging and climate-changing air pollution from household energy use, and includes field projects in India, China, Nepal, Mexico, and Guatemala as well as development and application of tools for international policy assessments. About half the households in the world use simple biomass and coal fuels for cooking and heating, which is now thought to cause about 1.6 million premature deaths each year from the air pollution. Thus, sufficiently convincing evidence of this problem and how it can be solved could potentially lead to policies that would have major benefits for hundreds of millions of poorest people in the world. It is very satisfying to be able to work on problems that affect poor women and children with a chance to help improve their lives. I enjoy also the range of research activities, from developing new instrumentation, doing measurements in villages, conducting detailed health effects studies, performing global risk analyses, and participating in international policy discussions.

• Name: Megan Schwarzman
• Position: Research scientist
• Department: School of Public Health
• Research: I work primarily in the realm of science translation—applying toxicological principles to the decisions we make as a society and as a research community, given emerging science on links between chemical exposures and their consequences for public health and the environment. Colleagues at UC Berkeley and I have established the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, a collaboration among the Colleges of Chemistry and Natural Resources and the Schools of Public Health, Law and Business. The Center’s goal includes developing innovative approaches to interdisciplinary teaching and research in the area of green chemistry and chemicals policy. I also practice medicine part time at San Francisco General Hospital, where I trained in Family and Community Medicine.