Howard Hu, MD, MPH, ScD, is Professor of Preventive Medicine (tenured, on sabbatical from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025) in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, at the University of Southern California. From July 1, 2020-June 30, 2024, he was the Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Department. Dr. Hu is a physician-scientist, internist and preventive medicine specialist, with a doctoral degree in epidemiology. Prior to coming to USC, he had been Professor of Occupational & Environmental Medicine (tenured), Founding Director of the NIH/NIEHS Center for Children’s Environmental Health, Director of the Occupational Medicine Residency at the Harvard School of Public Health and Associate Physician in the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston (1988- 2006); the NSF International Endowed Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology and Medicine (tenured), Founding Director of the NIH/NIEHS Environmental Health Core Sciences Center, and Associate Physician at the University of Michigan and University of Michigan Health System (2006-2012); and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Global Health, and Medicine (tenured) and the Founding Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto (2012-2018). In 2018-2020, Dr. Hu was a Visiting scholar and then an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Since 1990, Dr. Hu has led multi-institutional and international teams of scientists, students and fellows devoted to investigating the environmental, nutritional, social, psychosocial, genetic and epigenetic determinants of chronic disease and impaired child development in birth cohort and aging cohort studies in the U.S., Mexico, India, China, and elsewhere around the world. His team’s work has generated over 350 publications and won a number of awards. In 2016, Dr. Hu was elected to the Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Hu currently continues his work co-leading NIH-funded environmental birth cohort research through the Early Life Exposures in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants project (ELEMENT); co-leads the USC COVID Pandemic Research Center; co-leads the USC Sustainability & Healthcare initiative; and co-leads the Global Burden of Disease Pollution & Climate initiative. The latter aims to improve understanding of pollution’s “footprint” on the global burden of disease.

In 1999-2000, Dr. Hu was a Senior Faculty Fulbright Scholar in India. He served on the Board of Directors and on four fact-finding missions for Physicians for Human Rights (Nobel Peace Prize co-winner, 1997); on the Board of Population and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; on the Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council; on the External Advisory Council of the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences; and as the Chair of the Research Commission for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize, 1985). In the latter capacity, he and colleagues published “Nuclear Wastelands”, which was nominated for the U.S. National Book Award in 1996. Dr. Hu currently chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation, co-Chairs the Research Council of the Public Health Foundation of India, serves on the Board of Pure Earth, and serves on the Advisory Council of Physicians for Human Rights.