Research interests
Background:
Steven D. Stellman is a graduate of Ohio State University. He holds a doctorate in physical chemistry from New York University and a Master's degree in health policy and management from the Columbia University School of Public Health. He has served under two New York City government administrations as Assistant Commissioner of Health for Biostatistics and Epidemiological Research and Director of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, where he directed studies of infectious and chronic diseases, tuberculosis, prison health, maternal and child health, and AIDS. Prior to that he was Assistant Vice President of the American Cancer Society where he designed and carried out a prospective study of more than one million American men and women. Dr. Stellman has also been an NIH Fogarty Senior International Fellow at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, where he studied cancer in Asian immigrants to New York City. He is Associate Editor of the journal Women and Health.
Dr. Stellman's expertise is in cancer epidemiology, especially as it relates to environmental factors. He is also a senior research scientist with the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, NY, where he directs studies of both lung and breast cancer in relation to lifestyle and environmental exposures. He is Principal Investigator of an NCI-sponsored study entitled "Tobacco and cancer risk: dose, metabolism and genetics," which seeks to determine the actual dosages of cigarette-borne carcinogens, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrosamines, taken in by smokers of different types of cigarettes, the metabolic products of these carcinogens, and effect on lung cancer risks as well as modification of risk among individuals with different genetic characteristics.
He is also co-investigator (with his wife, Dr. Jeanne Stellman, also a Professor at the School of Public Health) of a study, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, to reconstruct exposure to phenoxy and other chemical herbicides in Vietnam experienced by veterans of the Vietnam War, and to study their physical and mental health experiences up to thirty years after the War.
Other recent studies include assessment of breast cancer risk in relation to exposure to organochlorine pesticides and PCBs in Long Island, and comparative studies of lung cancer in the US and Japan.
