Phillip Landrigan, MD, MSc, Appointed Dean for Global Health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dr. Landrigan is an internationally recognized pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine.
Philip Landrigan, MD, MSc, an internationally recognized pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine, has been appointed Dean for Global Health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. His appointment is effective immediately.
“Widely recognized as the foremost leader in environmental health issues, Dr. Landrigan has made an indelible impact on the patient and academic community both locally and internationally,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. “His expertise is unmatched, and we’re pleased that he will take on the role of Dean for Global Health to further address the most pressing problems of health and disease confronting the world’s population today.”
As Dean, Dr. Landrigan will oversee the growth of Mount Sinai’s Global Health Program with the goal of developing it into one of the leading medical school programs of its kind. Building on the long tradition of public health and community medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Landrigan will extend Mount Sinai’s strong base of educational programs and expand the institution’s current research portfolio in global health. He will create a forum for collaboration among Mount Sinai physicians, scientists and trainees interested or involved in global health, foster partnerships with other academic medical centers in developing nations, pursue philanthropy in support of global health, and attempt to secure a World Health Organization (WHO) designation as a WHO Collaborating Center.
Currently the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine since 1990, Dr. Landrigan has been a member of the faculty since 1985. He is also Director of Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center, which conducts research on the environmental causes of disease in children, including asthma, learning disabilities, autism, obesity, and childhood cancer. Dr. Landrigan has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides. He was a leader in the development of the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States.
Dr. Landrigan has also been a central figure in the medical and epidemiological studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. He has served at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service. His pioneering research on lead toxicity at low levels persuaded the U.S. government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint, actions which have yielded a 90 percent decline in the incidence of childhood lead poisoning over the past 25 years. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and five books, and has chaired several national committees. Dr. Landrigan was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai today is a 1,171-bed tertiary-care teaching facility that is internationally acclaimed for excellence in clinical care. Last year, nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients, and there were nearly 450,000 outpatient visits to the Medical Center.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is internationally recognized as a leader in groundbreaking clinical and basic science research, as well as having an innovative approach to medical education. With a faculty of more than 3,400 in 38 clinical and basic science departments and centers, Mount Sinai ranks among the top 20 medical schools in receipt of National Institute of Health (NIH) grants. For more information, please visit www.mountsinai.org.
After receiving his BA from Boston College, Dr. Landrigan earned his MD from Harvard Medical School. He later pursued an MS in Occupational Medicine and Diploma of Industrial Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.