Howard Hu, an expert in understanding the impact of exposure to toxic chemicals on human health, has served on four fact-finding missions for PHR. A professor at and the Flora L. Thornton Chair of the department of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, Dr. Hu is a physician-scientist, trained as an internist, occupational and environmental medicine specialist, and epidemiologist.
Dr. Hu’s work with PHR includes a 1987 investigation of the potentially toxic effects of tear gas in South Korea, a 1988 investigation of the use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds, a 1990 investigation into the violation of medical neutrality in Burma, and a 2009 investigation of potential exposure to toxic metals from mining operations among indigenous people in Guatemala.
Dr. Hu is also an affiliate professor in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. From 2012 to 2018, he was a professor of environmental health, epidemiology, global health and medicine and the founding dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. From 1988 to 2006, he was a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Channing Laboratory of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and from 2006 to 2012, he was the NSF International Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology & Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Hu’s work leading an international team of scientists has won a number of awards, including the 1999 U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences Progress and Achievement Award, the 2006 Harriett Hardy Award, the 2009 Linus Pauling Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2011 Award of Excellence from the American Public Health Association.
Dr Hu has served on PHR’s board of directors and was chair of the Research Commission for International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.