Habibul Ahsan

Habibul Ahsan is a Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Department of Public Health Sciences, where he serves as Dean of Population and Precision Health and Director of the Institute for Population and Precision Health. He also directs the Chicago Center for Health and Environment and serves as Associate Director of Population Research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center. His work bridges medicine, epidemiology, environmental health, and genomics with a focus on population-based approaches to disease prevention.

Dr. Ahsan's research expertise encompasses large-scale population studies assessing environmental disease risks and their modifying factors, with particular emphasis on the inter-relationships between environmental and genomic factors in cancer and other diseases. His work integrates environmental, nutritional, and lifestyle factors with host biology and molecular genomics to understand disease etiology, pathogenesis, and prevention. He has led significant research on arsenic exposure and its health effects, particularly in Bangladesh, and currently leads the only NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Core Center in Chicago. His research has important policy implications for environmental health at national and international levels.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on environmental health disparities, cancer epidemiology, and precision medicine approaches. Key research areas include arsenic and metal exposure effects, gene-environment interactions in cancer development, cardiovascular health impacts of air pollution, and health disparities across diverse populations. His work often involves large-scale cohort studies and multiethnic populations, with significant contributions from the Asia Cohort Consortium and studies in Bangladesh.

• Member, NAS Scientific Panel on Toxicological Assessment of Arsenic (2012-2016)
• Member, ASCO Annual Meeting Planning Committee (2015-2017)
• Member, NAEHSC-National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NIEHS Council) (2015-2019)
• Associate Editor, Genetic Epidemiology (2006-2011)

Dr. Ahsan has secured substantial research funding from NIH, including multiple R01 grants and leadership of the Illinois Precision Medicine Consortium - All of Us Research Program Site. He has built multidisciplinary teams across institutions to address health disparity research questions through prospective cohort studies with extensive environmental data and biobanks. His mentorship extends to junior and mid-level faculty development, and he manages large research teams and budgets. Current projects include establishing a multiethnic cohort in Chicago and leading environmental health research with policy implications.