D. Barr

Biography

After a 23-year career with CDC and 5 years as Emory/RSPH adjunct faculty, I accepted a full-time faculty appointment at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health in 2010. I am the Director of the Analytic Core/Targeted Research Resource of the NIH-funded Human Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposures (HERCULES) and Children's Health Exposure Assessment Resource (CHEAR) where we provide analytic support for a variety of exposome-related environmental health studies. I also direct "Project 1: Characterizing Exposures in an Urban Environment (CHERUB)" of Emory's joint SON and RSPH Center for Children's Health, Environment, Microbiome and Metabolome (C-CHEM2) which seeks to understand unique exposures of concern in an SES-diverse African American birth cohort in Atlanta and their relation with microbiota, endogenous metabolic perturbations and neurodevelopment.  My other research focuses on understanding prenatal exposures and neurodevelopment in a Southeast Asian birth cohort, the SAWASDEE study, in Thailand.  I am an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives, Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and past-president of the International Society of Exposure Science. I was recently recognized as a Thomas Reuters Top Cited Scientist in Environment/Ecology, 2014 and 215 (for a 10-year span) and was listed in Thomson Reuters World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds, 2014.  My research involves using analytical chemistry to assess exposure to a variety of environmental toxicants, an area called exposure science.  I use these data to evaluate sources of exposure or risks from exposure with a primary focus on maternal-child health issues.

Research Interest

Adolescent Health/Child Health, Maternal and Child Health, Biomarkers, Chemical Exposure, Exposure Assessment, Laboratory Science