Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA
Aaron J. Cohen, MPH, DSc, is Principal Scientist at the Health Effects Institute (HEI) in Boston, MA, where he has worked since 1990. He is also an Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
At HEI, Dr. Cohen manages an international program of epidemiologic research on the health effects of air pollution and is involved in developing and managing HEI’s US and international research programs. In these capacities he led HEI’s review of the literature on the health effects of air pollution in the developing countries of Asia and is co-coordinator of HEI’s Health Outcomes Research program, which assesses the health impacts of actions taken to improve air quality.
Past HEI responsibilities have included organizing and managing epidemiologic research projects such as the Reanalysis of the American Cancer Society and Six-City studies of air pollution and mortality and multicity time series studies of air pollution and daily mortality in Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America. Since 1999, Dr. Cohen has served as a Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the evaluation of epidemiologic evidence, air pollution health impact assessment, and air quality guideline development, and has served as a member of International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working groups on diesel exhaust and outdoor air pollution. He co-chaired the Expert Groups that produced estimates of the Global Burden of Disease due to urban air pollution in 2000 and ambient air pollution for the Global Burden of Disease 2010 project. Dr. Cohen is a member of the Core Analytic Team of the Global Burden of Disease 2013.
Dr. Cohen holds a DSc in Epidemiology (1991) and Master of Public Health (1985) from the Boston University School of Public Health. He is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. He is also a Registered Respiratory Therapist and worked for 15 years in newborn intensive care and subsequently as Research Associate in Perinatal Epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.