Environmental health experts at the University of Michigan School of Public Health are immersed in understanding the connection between the health of individuals and communities and the environment—whether it’s the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat, products we use or places we live and work.
This highlight reel provides a timeline of Dr. Arnold Monto’s pioneering work on identifying, treating and preventing infectious respiratory diseases.
Dr. Larry Brilliant, MPH ’77, arrived at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the 1970s with perhaps the most impressive résumé for a prospective student. He and his wife, Girija, had just returned from India after helping eradicate smallpox. Of course, the physician and medical epidemiologist has gone on to have a world-class career in public health and in the technology industry.
Reflecting on his 60-year career in public health, Michigan Public Health’s Dr. Arnold Monto said his success has hinged on his ability to address the laboratory, population and policy concerns that impact public health measures to halt the spread and reduce the severity of influenza epidemics and pandemics. By doing so, he has helped to save countless lives, prevent untold suffering and provide future generations with the tools to stem the threat of severe respiratory illnesses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on the travel industry and on the field of international education. But it has helped global public health come to grips with its colonial past and articulate its goals in ways that are truer to the mission of public health itself.
Michigan Public Health professors Scott Greer and Elizabeth King and colleagues in Brazil analyzed early government responses from 34 countries on five continents to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic and how those decisions impacted citizen health.