Shao Lin, MD, PhD

Dr. Shao Lin, a tenured Professor of both the Department of Environmental Health Science and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics focuses her research in assessing the impacts of various environmental and occupational exposures, including climate change, extreme weather, disasters, and outdoor and indoor air pollution and toxicants on human health.

Lin, who grew up in China, joined the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) in 1990 and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UAlbany in 1993. As a Principal Investigator, she has directed more than 40 studies assessing health impacts of various environmental and occupational exposures, including climate change, extreme weather, air pollution, heavy traffic exposure, residential exposure to urban air toxics from outdoor/indoor sources, health effects among New York City residents living near Ground Zero after the 9/11/01 disaster and after Hurricane Sandy, and a series of school environment-health projects.

Dr. Lin is also the Associate Director of Global Health Research at UAlbany's Center for Global Health and has been invited to serve on to several state advisory boards, such as NYSDOH's Asthma Advisory Board and multiple advisory committees, such as the World Trade Center Advisory Board and in national workgroups such as developing climate change indicators, evaluating current heat-stress definition, preparing white papers/reports, and comparing projection methods. She was one of the ten invited Expert Panelists by the NIH, CDC and EPA providing recommendation and direction of climate-health research to the US Congress and the US President. Since 2010, Dr. Lin has given 25 invited presentations in the U.S. and 18 invited presentations in other countries, in addition to 59 conference presentations. To date, she has served as Principal Investigator on 21 competitive awarded grants and as Co-Investigator on six grants, totaling over $17.5 million. Dr. Lin has been invited as a reviewer for multiple top environmental journals, and has been an appointed member of NIH grant reviewer for the Study Section of Infectious Diseases, Reproductive Health, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions (2012 – 2018). Her studies regarding the effects of power outage on mental health have recently been featured in national media, including New York Times Magazine and Conversation US.

Dr. Lin obtained her medical degree from Sun Yet-Sen University in China. She received her Master of Public Health, Prevention Medicine Residency, and Ph.D. degree at Epidemiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US. As a Research Director of Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology of the Center for Environmental Health, NYSDOH, she has 25 years of experience in directing various environmental health studies and has successfully completed more than 40 studies.

Since 2010, Dr. Lin has given 26 invited presentations in the U.S. and 47 invited presentations in other countries, in addition to 84 conference presentations. To date, she has served as Principal Investigator on 21 competitive awarded grants and as Co-Investigator on six grants, totaling about 20 million.

Dr. Lin has been invited as a reviewer for multiple top environmental journals, and has been an appointed member of NIH grant reviewer for the Study Section of Infectious Diseases, Reproductive Health, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions (2012 – 2018). She is the standing member of the Environmental Health Sciences Review Committee of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), June 2019 - June 30, 2023.”