Center for Climate, Environment and Health

Joseph Braun was formerly a school nurse in Milwaukee, WI before receiving his master's and doctoral degrees in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He completed postdoctoral training in environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

For 15 years, Dr. Braun has been committed to identifying modifiable risk factors of pediatric diseases in order to improve public health. Working with an interdisciplinary team that includes epidemiologists, biostatisticians, exposure scientists, physicians, and engineers, he studies the health effects of environmental pollutant exposures before conception and during gestation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

Dr. Braun’s research foci includes endocrine disrupting chemicals, toxic metals, obesity, cardiometabolic health, and neurodevelopmental disorders. His research group use advanced biostatistical techniques to quantify the health effects of chemical mixtures, identify periods of heightened susceptibility to chemical exposures, and characterize metabolic and epigenetic pathways that are perturbed by chemical exposures. Finally, Dr. Braun is developing interventions to prevent chemical exposures and their health effects in vulnerable populations. 

Dr. Braun and his research team use three prospective cohort studies in North America (HOME, MIREC, and PEACE Studies) to conduct these studies. These cohorts have been following children since before conception or during pregnancy; follow-up now continues as children transition into adolescence.