From the Director
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, instructed his pupils
"If you want to learn about the health of a population, look
at the air they breath, the water they drink, and the place that
they live." During the Revival of Learning, Ramazzini, the
Father of Occupational Medicine added, "Ask your patient,
What kind of work do you do?" The recognition, evaluation,
and control of environmental and occupational health hazards are
central to both medicine and public health. The Great Lakes
Centers continue this tradition and seek to promote a healthy
human environment through the academic triad of teaching,
research, and service.
The Great Lakes Center was founded in 1977 as one of the first
regional NIOSH Education and Research Centers in the United
States. Over the past 28 years, the Center has added training
and research programs in environmental health, children's health,
and global health, and initiated an Occupational Health Service
Institute to provide community service. In 2000, to reflect its
multi-disciplinary nature, the center modified its name to the
Great Lakes Centers. Based at the University of Illinois School
of Public Health, the centers are multi-disciplinary and
multi-institutional, and include the programs at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook
County. Today, the Centers include a NIOSH Education and
Research Center, an ATSDR/USPA-funded Center for Children's
Environmental Health (Region V PEHSU), a NIH Fogarty -funded
Center for Global Environmental and Occupational Health, a
CDC-funded Center of Excellence in Environmental Health, and the
Occupational Health Services Institute. Together they comprise
the Chicago-based World Health Organization Collaborating Centre
in Occupational and Environmental Health.
The Great Lakes Centers bring a world of expertise to Illinois
and the expertise of Illinois to the world. We invite you to
learn more about our Centers and take advantage of the many
resources that we have to offer.
Daniel Hryhorczuk, Director |
