David Rosner

David Rosner is the Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Professor of History in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. He is also Co-Director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health.

Biography

Rosner received his MSPH from the University of Massachusetts and his PhD from Harvard in the History of Science. Until moving to Columbia, he was University Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York. He is an elected member to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to numerous grants, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and a Josiah Macy Fellow. He has been awarded the Distinguished Scholar’s Prize from the City University, the Viseltear Prize for Outstanding Work in the History of Public Health from the APHA and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Massachusetts. He has also been honored at the Awards Dinner of the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health and he and Gerald Markowitz have been awarded the Upton Sinclair Memorial Lectureship “For Outstanding Occupational Health, Safety, and Environmental Journalism by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.” For the past few years he has been actively involved in lawsuits on behalf of cities, states and communities around the nation who are trying to hold the lead industry accountable for past acts that have resulted in tremendous damage to America’s children. He is author and editor of ten books including A Once Charitable Enterprise (Cambridge University Press, 1982, 2004; Princeton University Press, 1987), “Hives of Sickness,” Epidemics and Public Health in New York City (Rutgers University Press, 1995), and Health Care in America: Essays in Social History (with Susan Reverby). In addition, he has co-authored and edited with Gerald Markowitz numerous books and articles, including Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the Politics of Occupational Disease in Twentieth Century America, (Princeton University Press, 1991;1994; University of Michigan, 2005), Children, Race, and Power: Kenneth and Mamie Clarks’ Northside Center, (University Press of Virginia, 1996; Routledge Press, 2001); Dying for Work, (Indiana University Press, 1987) and “Slaves of the Depression,” Workers’ Letters About Life on the Job, (Cornell University Press, 1987). He and Gerald Markowitz have authored Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution (University of California Press/Milbank, 2002) and Are We Ready? Public Health Since 9/11 (University of California Press/ Milbank , 2006). His newest book, titled The Contested Boundaries of Public Health, (co-edited with James Colgrove and Gerald Markowitz) appeared from Rutgers University Press in 2008.

Personal Life

Dr. David Rosner received his BA from City College of New York in 1968, an MSPH from the University of Massachusetts in 1972, and a PhD from Harvard University. The father of Zachary and Molly, he lives with Dr. Kathlyn Conway, a psychotherapist and author, in New York City. He is a member of the International Silicosis Project, a project organized through the French government and Sciences Po on the international comparison of an occupational disease, silicosis. In 2008 he was a fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. In the past he has participated in an IREX Program on Eastern Europe.

Influential Work

Dr. Rosner’s work has been influential in a number of international legislative and legal decisions regarding industrial safety and health, health policy and race relations. The 2005 edition of his book, Deadly Dust, co-authored with Dr. Gerald Markowitz, was one of the major stimuli of a five year, international study of mining and health standards through collaboration with the Agence National Francais, the French equivalent of the National Science Foundation. This collaboration brings together experts from countries around the world to discuss the variety of historical factors that have shaped international policies regarding silicosis, a deadly lung disease affecting worker in a host of industries. In its earlier edition, this book led to the bringing together of over 600 public health, industry and governmental experts from the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mining Safety and Health Administration and elsewhere in a National Conference on Silicosis in Washington. This conference led the Secretary of Labor to identify silicosis as a disease that should be eliminated in the coming years and the banning of certain dangerous practices in a variety of industries. In addiiton, he has been a consultant and expert witness in lead poisoning cases, on behalf of the State of Rhode Island in its landmark suit against the lead pigment industry and individual plaintiffs injured by lead from paint on the walls of hte nation's housing.

Current Projects

With Gerald Markowitz, Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York, and support from the National Science Foundation,he is currently completing, a new book: "With The Best of Intentions," (University of California Press/Milbank Fund) which traces the recent implications of lowered blood lead levels on public health research and practice.

Sources and External Links

- List of published books

- Columbia University Announcement

- Bio

- Research

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