As climate change intensifies, it’s clearer than ever that our health is inextricably linked to our environment. In this issue of Findings, we explore the many ways in which our well-being is impacted by the air we breathe, water we drink, toxins we encounter and food we eat. However, the impacts are not the same for everyone.
Environmental health experts at the University of Michigan School of Public Health are immersed in understanding the connection between the health of individuals and communities and the environment—whether it’s the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat, products we use or places we live and work.
This highlight reel provides a timeline of Dr. Arnold Monto’s pioneering work on identifying, treating and preventing infectious respiratory diseases.
Joshua Petrie, BS ’04, MPH ’08, PhD ’16, is an associate research scientist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Recently, he took a few minutes to talk about the impact his former professor and mentor, Dr. Arnold Monto, had on his own career and the public-health field.
Suzanne Gilbert, MPH ’75 and PhD ’83, has dedicated her life to working in international public health and preventing blindness after co-founding the Seva Foundation with fellow alum Dr. Larry Brilliant, among others, more than 40 years ago. She is the senior director of Research and Strategic Opportunities at Seva’s headquarters in Berkeley, California.
Dr. Larry Brilliant, MPH ’77, arrived at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the 1970s with perhaps the most impressive résumé for a prospective student. He and his wife, Girija, had just returned from India after helping eradicate smallpox. Of course, the physician and medical epidemiologist has gone on to have a world-class career in public health and in the technology industry.