About

LEONARDO TRASANDE, MD, MPP

He is the Jim G. Hendrick MD Professor, Director of the Division of Environmental Pediatrics and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine. He also serves on the faculty of the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and the NYU College of Global Public Health.

Dr. Trasande is an internationally renowned leader in environmental health. His research focuses on the impacts of chemicals on hormones in our bodies. He also has led the way in documenting the economic costs for policy makers of failing to prevent diseases of environmental origin proactively.

For information on his work documenting the global burden of childhood lead exposure, including an interactive map of costs by country READ MORE

For information on his work documenting air pollution and preterm birth in the US, READ MORE

He is perhaps best known for a series of studies published in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism that document disease costs due to endocrine disrupting chemicals in the US and Europe of $340 billion and €163 billion annually, respectively.  For information about this work, READ MORE

He is also Principal Investigator for a research project comparing neurodevelopment, cardiometabolic and respiratory profiles of children exposed in utero to the World Trade Center disaster to a comparison group.  READ MORE

He has served as a member of numerous scientific committees and expert panels, including:

• the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Executive Committee of the Council for Environmental Health

• the Science and Technical Advisory Committee for the World Trade Center Health Program

• the National Children’s Study Methodological Review Panel of the National Academy of Sciences

• the United Nations Environment Programme Steering Committee on a Global Outlook for Chemicals

• the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

After receiving his bachelor, medical and public policy degrees from Harvard, he completed the Boston Combined Residency in Pediatrics and a legislative fellowship in the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Prior to coming to NYU, he completed fellowship training in environmental pediatrics. For five years he also was a Lead Investigator in one of the original (Vanguard) locations of the National Children's Study, and Deputy Director for the largest (eight location) Study Center spanning a region from upstate New York to central New Jersey.