Illuminating the integrated nature of human and environmental health.
Research on planetary health advanced by the Center for the Environment is guided by its definition as “global environmental change and its health impacts” provided by the Planetary Health Alliance, a consortium of more than 340 research and practice institutions. At Washington University, the theme is broadened to reflect reciprocity in the human health-environment relationship. Themes of research advanced by the Center include environmental health, global health, sustainable urban design, sustainable healthy food systems, nourishing biomes, and the connection between environmental change and infectious disease. Research advances benefit from a convergent approach that draws on expertise from public health, engineering, ecology, natural and social sciences, and architecture and urban design.
Lora Iannotti, PhD
Professor of Public Health
Iannotti’s research focuses on identifying interventions to promote healthy growth and development among young children living in resource-poor countries. To fight hidden hunger, she is focused on ensuring children get proper, sustainable nutrition so they get a great start in life.
Natalie Mueller, PhD
Assistant Professor of Archaeology
Mueller is an archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist who specializes in the historical ecology of North America and the origins of agriculture. She is co-first author of a new study which reveals a pattern of gradual introductions of different crops that originated from different parts of Africa.
Planetary health scholars
Meredith Malone
Curator, Kemper Art Museum
Contemporary Art and Its Role in Addressing the Climate Crisis and Its Impact on Global Health, Plant-human-land Relations, Seed Keeping and Preservation of Biodiversity, Environmental Communication
Ben Mansfeld
Assistant Professor of Biology
Plant Disease, Plant Defense, Optimization of Defense, Circadian Rhythm
Patricia Olynyk
Florence and Frank Bush Professor in Art
Interspecies Co-existence/Communication, Light Pollution and Its Effects on Human and Non-human Life, Environmental Narrative Strategies, Environment + Art, Environment, Climate Change, and the Cultural Imaginary
Planetary health stories
