Dr. Hertz-Picciotto, Director of the NIH-funded Environmental Health Sciences Core Center at UC Davis, is an internationally renowned environmental epidemiologist with over 300 scientific publications addressing exposures to harmful chemicals, their interactions with nutrition and genetics, and their effects on human health and development. Her comprehensive research program on environmental causes for autism has been pioneering in shaping that field. Her latest initiatives aim to study the impacts of climate change on both physical and mental well-being; lay the foundation for protection of public health in the face of wildfires and other extreme weather events; establish the largest biorepository for the study of climate-related exposures and biologic markers; characterize vulnerable populations and their most critical needs; and engage with local, state and regional change-makers to move this knowledge into policy and practices.

Dr. Hertz-Picciotto received a PhD from UC Berkeley and post-doctoral training at NIEHS, spent 12 years on the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, and joined UC Davis School of Medicine in 2002. She served as President of two major professional epidemiology societies and chaired four National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine Panels. In 2011, she received the Goldsmith Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.