Sung Kyun Park

Sung Kyun Park, ScD, MPH is a Professor in both Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, with additional affiliation at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute within the University of Michigan Medical School. His academic journey began at Seoul National University where he earned his BS in Food Science and Technology (1998) and MPH in Environmental Health (2000), followed by an ScD in Environmental Epidemiology from Harvard University (2005).

Dr. Park's research focuses on environmental epidemiology with particular emphasis on multi-pollutant exposures and their impact on human health. His work spans several critical health domains including cardiometabolic diseases, reproductive aging in women, and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease. He has developed innovative statistical approaches for assessing chemical mixtures through his Environmental Risk Score (ERS) methodology.

His laboratory, the Michigan Multi-Pollutant Epidemiology Group (MPEG), leads major research initiatives including the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Multi-Pollutant Study (SWAN-MPS) and the Study of the Environment and Alzheimer's Disease and related Dementias (SEAD). These projects investigate how environmental exposures individually and as mixtures affect health outcomes across the lifespan.

Analysis of Dr. Park's recent publications reveals a strong focus on chemical mixtures, particularly PFAS, heavy metals, and endocrine disruptors, and their associations with metabolic disorders, women's health outcomes, cognitive function, and neurodegenerative diseases. His work frequently employs sophisticated statistical methods to address the complexities of multi-pollutant exposures.

Dr. Park serves as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH-funded research projects including R01 grants examining environmental factors in Alzheimer's disease (AG070897) and metabolic disease (ES026578), demonstrating sustained research excellence and funding success.

In addition to his research, Dr. Park is actively involved in student mentorship and education, teaching advanced courses in environmental epidemiology data analysis using R programming language. His commitment to training the next generation of environmental health scientists is evident through his course development and teaching of EHS675/EPID675, EPID798, and EPID815.