Departmental Affiliations
Gurumurthy Ramachandran, PhD, MS, conducts research focused on developing effective and accurate methods to assess health-related human exposure in occupational and non-occupational settings.
Contact Info
Research Interests
Exposure assessment; Occupational Health; Exposure models; Air pollution; Bayesian applications in exposure assessment; Nanoparticles; Occupational exposures; Indoor air pollution; Cookstove emissions; Exposome;
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Gurumurthy “Ram” Ramachandran joined as Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 2016. He is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Starting in July 2019, he has also been appointed as Deputy Chair for the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering.
He has conducted research in various areas relating to human exposure assessment in occupational, residential, and outdoor settings. His research has included the development of occupational exposure assessment strategies for airborne contaminants. He has conducted pioneering studies in occupational hygiene decision-making that synthesizes mathematical exposure models, monitoring data, and probabilistic expert judgment within a Bayesian framework. He has led or participated in multi-disciplinary teams engaged in numerous community and occupational exposure assessment and epidemiological studies in the US, India, and Canada, and Bangladesh. He collaborates with colleagues in International Health on epidemiological studies in Bangladesh relating to cookstove emissions, with toxicology colleagues on designing exposure chambers for animal studies, and colleagues in the SOM on lung dosimetry modeling. He is co-leading the Exposome Collaborative of the Johns Hopkins University.
He has served as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). He is also serving on the editorial boards of the Annals of Work Exposures and Health, and the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. He has a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering, and a Ph. D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina.
Honors & Awards
1. Chair of the International Scientific Committee, International Occupational Hygiene Association International Scientific Conference, Washington D.C., September 2018
2. Faculty Excellence in Advising, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 2015.
3. Elected American Industrial Hygiene Association Fellow, 2014.
4. Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 2012, 2014.
Membership on Panels and Committees
1. Member, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Committee to Review of DoD's Proposed Occupational Exposure Limits for Lead. 2019-present
2. Member of NIOSH Study Section (SOH-1). 2014-2019.
3. Member, Board of Scientific Counselors, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 2006-2011.
4. Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Alcoa Corporation, 2012-2016.
5. Institute of Medicine, Board on Military and Veterans Health, Committee on Making Best Use of the Agent Orange Exposure Reconstruction Model, 2007-2008.
6. Editorial Board Member, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2004 - present.
7. Editorial Board Member, Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2017 - present.
8. Member, Exposure Assessment Strategies Committee, American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1998-present.
Select Publications
Selected Publications from the last five years that show my interest areas - exposure models, decision making, exposure assessment in epidemiological studies, Bayesian methods, and indoor air pollution in India.
Shao, Y., Ramachandran S, Arnold, S., and Ramachandran, G. Turbulent Eddy Diffusion Models in Exposure Assessment - Determination of the Eddy Diffusion Coefficient. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 14:3, 195-206, 2017.
Stewart, P.A., Stenzel, M., Ramachandran, G., Banerjee, S., Huynh, T., Groth , C., Kwok, R.K., Blair, A., Engel, L.S., Sandler, D.P. Development of a Total Hydrocarbon Ordinal Job-Exposure Matrix for Workers Responding to the Deepwater Horizon Disaster: The GuLF STUDY. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2018;28(3):223–30. https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2017.16. PMID: 29064482.
Choi, J-Y, Baumgartner, J., Harnden, S., Alexander, B.H., Town, R.J., D’Souza, G., Ramachandran, G. Increased risk of respiratory illness associated with kerosene fuel use among women and children in urban Bangalore, India. Occup. Environ. Med. 72:114-122, 2014.
Banerjee, S., Ramachandran, G., Vadali, M., Sahmel, J. Bayesian Hierarchical Framework for Occupational Hygiene Decision Making. Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 58 (9): 1079-1093, 2014.
Huynh, T., Ramachandran G, Quick, H., Hwang, J., Raynor, P.C., Alexander, B.H., Mandel, J.H. Ambient Fine Aerosol Concentrations in Multiple Metrics in Taconite Mining Operations; Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 63(1):77-90, 7 January 2019, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxy086