Robbie M. Parks, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
212-342-4717

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Overview

I am an environmental epidemiologist and physicist who has diverse experience in large-scale multi-disciplinary quantitative research focused on climate-related exposures, public health and equity. I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and an NIH NIEHS K99/R00 Fellow. I am also the Lead Instructor of the Columbia University SHARP Course Bayesian Modeling for Environmental Health. I was a Columbia University Earth Institute/Climate School Post-doctoral Fellow from 2019 to 2022 with Prof. Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, completed my PhD at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London with Profs. Majid Ezzati and Ralf Toumi in 2019, and graduated with a BA/MA (Oxon) in Physics from the Keble College, University of Oxford. I am proudly both a first-gen academic and an Agents of Change in Environmental Justice Senior Fellow.

Office Location: 722 West 168th Street, ARB 1107C

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BA, 2008 University of Oxford
  • PhD, 2019 Imperial College London

Committees, Societies, Councils

  • Psych Epi Training Program Faculty, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University
  • Hurricane Expert Working Group, Americares
  • Expert, Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN)
  • Expert Working Group, Connecting Climate Minds
  • Center Faculty, Social Psychiatry SPIRIT
  • Funding Advisory Committee, Wellcome Trust
  • Official Observer, COP28
  • Official Observer, COP27
  • US National Climate Assessment (NCA5) Technical Contributor (Chapter 14)
  • Senior Fellow, Agents of Change in Environmental Justice
  • Steering Group, Climate Cares
  • WHO Expert Working Group on Climate Change and Mental Health
  • Anti-Racism Task Force Committee, Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University
  • MOSAIC Faculty Affiliate, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Research

Research Interests

  • Air Pollution
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Health
  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health

Selected Publications

Prada D, Baccarelli AA, Kupsco A, Parks RM. Climate change and health: understanding mechanisms will inform mitigation and prevention strategies. Nat Med. 2024 Jun;30(6):1522-1524. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-02925-8. PubMed PMID: 38641749.

Parks RM, Rowland ST, Do V, Boehme AK, Dominici F, Hart CL, Kioumourtzoglou MA. The association between temperature and alcohol- and substance-related disorder hospital visits in New York State. Commun Med (Lond). 2023 Sep 26;3(1):118. doi: 10.1038/s43856-023-00346-1. PubMed PMID: 37752306; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10522658.

Parks RM, Kontis V, Anderson GB, Baldwin JW, Danaei G, Toumi R, Dominici F, Ezzati M, Kioumourtzoglou MA. Short-term excess mortality following tropical cyclones in the United States. Sci Adv. 2023 Aug 18;9(33):eadg6633. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg6633. Epub 2023 Aug 16. PubMed PMID: 37585525; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10431701.

Parks RM, Benavides J, Anderson GB, Nethery RC, Navas-Acien A, Dominici F, Ezzati M, Kioumourtzoglou MA. Association of Tropical Cyclones With County-Level Mortality in the US. JAMA. 2022 Mar 8;327(10):946-955. doi: 10.1001/jama.2022.1682. PubMed PMID: 35258534; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8905400.

Bock J, Srivastava P, Jessel S, Klopp JM, Parks RM. Compounding Risks Caused by Heat Exposure and COVID-19 in New York City: A Review of Policies, Tools, and Pilot Survey Results. J Extreme Events. 2021 Jun;8(2). doi: 10.1142/S2345737621500159. Epub 2021 Sep 22. PubMed PMID: 35474914; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9036680.

Parks RM, Anderson GB, Nethery RC, Navas-Acien A, Dominici F, Kioumourtzoglou MA. Tropical cyclone exposure is associated with increased hospitalization rates in older adults. Nat Commun. 2021 Mar 9;12(1):1545. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21777-1. PubMed PMID: 33750775; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7943804.

Kontis V, Bennett JE, Rashid T, Parks RM, Pearson-Stuttard J, Guillot M, Asaria P, Zhou B, Battaglini M, Corsetti G, McKee M, Di Cesare M, Mathers CD, Ezzati M. Magnitude, demographics and dynamics of the effect of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on all-cause mortality in 21 industrialized countries. Nat Med. 2020 Dec;26(12):1919-1928. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-1112-0. Epub 2020 Oct 14. PubMed PMID: 33057181.

Parks RM, Bennett JE, Tamura-Wicks H, Kontis V, Toumi R, Danaei G, Ezzati M. Anomalously warm temperatures are associated with increased injury deaths. Nat Med. 2020 Jan;26(1):65-70. doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0721-y. Epub 2020 Jan 13. PubMed PMID: 31932800; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6957467.

Parks RM, Bennett JE, Foreman KJ, Toumi R, Ezzati M. National and regional seasonal dynamics of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the USA from 1980 to 2016. Elife. 2018 Oct 30;7. doi: 10.7554/eLife.35500. PubMed PMID: 30373715; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6207431.

Bennett JE, Tamura-Wicks H, Parks RM, Burnett RT, Pope CA 3rd, Bechle MJ, Marshall JD, Danaei G, Ezzati M. Particulate matter air pollution and national and county life expectancy loss in the USA: A spatiotemporal analysis. PLoS Med. 2019 Jul;16(7):e1002856. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002856. eCollection 2019 Jul. PubMed PMID: 31335874; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6650052.

See a complete list of publications on Google Scholar.