Philip J. Landrigan, James P. Keogh Award Winner for 2002

Dr. Philip J. Landrigan is Director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment, and Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department Community and Preventive Medicine and Director of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He also holds a Professorship in Pediatrics. Dr. Landrigan obtained his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1967 and a Master of Science in occupational medicine and a Diploma of Industrial Health from the University of London.

Dr. Landrigan served as a medical epidemiologist at CDC in Atlanta from 1970 to 1985 where he performed studies of measles and rubella, directed research for the Global Smallpox Eradication Program, and established and directed the Environmental Hazards Branch of the Bureau of Epidemiology. From 1979 to 1985, he was Director of the NIOSH Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies. Dr. Landrigan is a member of the Institute of Medicine, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, and former Editor of Environmental Research.

Dr. Landrigan continues a long and distinguished career of research and advocacy in occupational and environmental health, beginning with his early explorations of childhood exposure to lead from occupational sources (take-home toxins"). This work evolved into continuing advocacy for prevention of exposure to lead and other toxic metals nationally and internationally. He has been a pioneer in drawing attention to the problems of child labor and extends this energy and advocacy to under-served populations worldwide, constantly calling attention to the special risks to workers in developing nations. He chaired a National Academy of Sciences Committee whose final report—Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children—led to the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. He also served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran's Illnesses and as Senior Advisor on Children's Health to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was responsible at EPA for establishing a new Office of Children's Health Protection. Most recently, he has advocated for organized approaches to understanding the worker and community consequences of the tragedies of September, 2001.