Beate Ritz, MD, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA
Fielding School of Public Health with co-appointments in Environmental Health Sciences
and Neurology and a member of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.
She has used geographic information system (GIS) based exposure assessment tools and
omics tools to study environmental factors impacting pregnancy and adverse reproductive
outcomes, neurodevelopment (autism), and neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer). Her research integrates across the fields of environmental and occupational
epidemiology, neuroscience, and genetics with an emphasis on public policy relevant
research. She served on numerous National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine
(NAS-IOM) committees, U.S. EPA review panels, and the California State Air Toxics
Assessment program. She served as the chair/vice chair of the Epidemiology department
at UCLA and the President of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
(ISEE 2018-19). She received the Society for Epidemiology Research (SER) 2022 Ken
Rothman Career Achievement Award and the John Goldsmith Career award from the
ISEE in 2024.