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Frederica P. Perera, Ph.D. |
Frederica P. Perera, Ph.D., is a Professor at Columbia University School of Public Health, where she serves as Director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, and Associate Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Perera is internationally recognized as a founder and pioneer in molecular epidemiology. She has authored more than 160 publications. Her areas of specialization include prevention of environmental risks to children, molecular epidemiology, environment-susceptibility interactions in cancer and developmental damage, breast and lung cancer, chemoprevention, and risk assessment.
Dr. Perera received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her Masters and doctoral degrees in Public Health from Columbia University.
Dr. Perera received the First Irving J. Selikoff Cancer Research Award from The Ramazzini Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health Research in 1995; the Newsweek Club award in 1997; the First Children’s Environmental Health Award from The Pew Center for Children’s Health and the Environment in 1999; and was the Distinguished Lecturer in Occupational and Environmental Cancer at the National Cancer Institute in 2002.
Dr. Perera is principal investigator on a study to determine the effects of exposure to the WTC tragedy on children born to women who were living or working near the site on and following 9/11/01. Follow-up studies will help to determine the effects on the young child of intrauterine exposure to pollutants and stress resulting from the WTC disaster. Included in the follow-up study are incidence of serious infant illness; mental and motor development at ages 1 and 2 years; growth at 1 and 2 years; and indicators of infant health determined by interviews at 1 and 2 years.