John M. Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., serves as a senior advisor to the Director on public health issues and as NIEHS liaison to its external constituencies, stakeholders, and advocacy groups. He also leads NIEHS efforts on climate change and human health. In this capacity he serves as HHS principal to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, for which he also co-chairs the Interagency Cross-Cutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health. Dr. Balbus' background combines training and experience in clinical medicine with expertise in epidemiology, toxicology, and risk sciences. He has authored studies and lectures on global climate change and health, transportation-related air pollution, the toxic effects of chemicals, and regulatory approaches to protecting susceptible subpopulations.

Before joining the NIEHS, Dr. Balbus was Chief Health Scientist for the non-governmental organization Environmental Defense Fund. He served on the faculty of The George Washington University, where he was founding Director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health, founding co-Director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment, and Acting Chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. He maintains an adjunct faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Balbus received his A.B. degree in Biochemistry from Harvard University, his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. In addition to current membership on the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research and Medicine, Dr. Balbus has also served as a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, the National Research Council's Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology and the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, and the Society of Toxicology.