Community Events
Environmental Health Sciences Community Events
In the 2025-26 academic year, the College of Health and Human Development's environmental health sciences program area will be supporting the following events:
Spring 2026
The Human Metallome: Keys to Healthy Aging
April 7, 2026, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. | Bennett Pierce Living Center, 110 Henderson Building, Penn State University Park
Event Schedule
11 a.m.: Keynote Lecture
12 noon: Lunch
1:45-3 p.m.: Panel discussion on funding in the field of Environmental Health with a focus on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Speaker: Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, Department Chair of Environmental Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Abstract: Metals and metalloids are fundamental to human biology, shaping cellular function, metabolism, and resilience across the life course. At the same time, chronic exposure to toxic metals contributes to oxidative stress, inflammation, and accelerated aging, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, cognitive decline, and other age-related conditions.
This lecture introduces the concept of the human metallome—the integrated profile of essential and toxic metals in the body—and its emerging role as a determinant of healthy or accelerated aging. Drawing on large population studies, including the Strong Heart Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), as well as evidence from the TACT2 randomized chelation trial, this talk will highlight how metal mixtures influence aging-related pathways and disease risk, and how these effects vary across populations and stages of life.
Advances in metallomics now enable high-precision measurement of trace elements across biospecimens, allowing deeper insight into metal homeostasis, dysregulation, and intervention targets. By integrating observational and interventional evidence, this lecture will discuss how understanding the human metallome can inform prevention strategies, clinical decision-making, and environmental health policies aimed at promoting longer, healthier lives.
Fall 2025
Water Insecurity, Distress, and Depression: A Global Perspective
October 27, 2025, 4 p.m. | Bennett Pierce Living Center, 110 Henderson Building, Penn State University Park
Speaker: Alex Brewis, Arizona State University President's Professor
Abstract: Living with household water insecurity is consistently associated with depression and other negative mental health effects. Yet the amount or quality of water does not well explain what is observed in field-based studies. For example, men and women living in the same house with the same inadequate water source can show highly divergent mental health outcomes. Based on our team’s recent studies with water insecure households in Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United States, we have been able to identify a range of mechanisms related to the social and cultural meanings of water that help explain why water insecurity is so consistently depressing. These include the capacities of water insecurity to trigger conflict, reveal inequities, inflict shame, and as an index social failure. Living with water is inherently stressful, but understanding the complex bases of that stress provides a means to develop innovative and effective solutions to a growing challenge faced by billions globally.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Nutritional Sciences and the Department of Biobehavioral Health.
Environmental Health Sciences Affiliates Mixer
November 2025
In early November 2025, the Environmental Health Sciences program area is going to host a mixer, at which affiliates will get to know each other's research and/or teaching interests as they pertain to environmental health.
Details on this event to come.
Past Events
See past events hosted by the Environmental Health Sciences program area.