The Human Metallome: Keys to Healthy Aging

Robert S. Gordon Jr. Lecture | Wednesday, May 6, 2026 | 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET

Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD is Leon Hess Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research and practice focuses on the health effects of environmental exposures, molecular pathways, and interventions for addressing pollution and related-health effects. She trained in Medicine at the University of Granada, Spain, and completed her residency training in Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Hospital La Paz, Madrid and her PhD in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. She directs the Columbia University Northern Plains Superfund Research Program, a center that integrates science, technology, and traditional knowledge to protect the Northern Plains water resources and Indigenous communities from hazardous metal exposures and leads the exposures working group for the CKDu CURE consortium, a collaborative research consortium investigating chronic kidney disease of uncertain etiology in agricultural communities. Among other advisory committees and roles, she serves as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board and is also an elected member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP).