Dr. David Orlo Carpenter

Dr. David O. Carpenter is a public health physician who received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School. He chose a career in research and public health rather than clinical practice. After a research position at the National Institute of Mental Health and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, he was recruited to be the Director of the Wadsworth Center of Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). In this position, he played a major role in the creation of the former School of Public Health as a partnership between the University at Albany and the New York State Department of Health and became the first Dean of the school when it was officially established in 1985. He stepped down as Dean in 1998 and joined the faculty as a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences. In 2001, he worked to establish the Institute for Health and the Environment as a mechanism to promote interdisciplinary research activities across the various schools and colleges at the University at Albany. His research is focused on the study of environmental causes of human disease, especially the chronic diseases of older age such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, thyroid disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.