About CEED

Message from the Directors

Welcome to the Rutgers Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (CEED)! As New Jersey’s only NIEHS-funded Center, CEED has been at the forefront of groundbreaking research that addresses the environmental health challenges facing local communities. As the most densely populated state in the nation, New Jersey faces many pressing environmental issues from congested roadways and high-volume seaports to overdevelopment and a legacy of poorly regulated industry leading to contamination of water, soil, and air.  To combat these legacy environmental health issues as well as confront emerging environmental concerns like climate change and microplastics, CEED fosters collaborative, transdisciplinary, and community-engaged research led by scientists and clinicians across New Jersey’s leading research institutions. 

Moving into the next phase of CEED’s growth, we renew our commitment to building a healthier and more sustainable future for everyone who lives, works, and plays in New Jersey.  To do so, we will capitalize on our state’s greatest strength – its people. CEED scientists are committed to conducting cutting edge “research that matters” informed by and in partnership with the communities we serve. When communities in Elizabeth, NJ expressed concerns about diesel truck exhaust in residential neighborhoods, CEED was there to train community scientists to collect air quality and truck count data, a research collaboration that ultimately led to truck bans on local streets and cleaner air for residents. We look forward to innovating new approaches to address real-world environmental challenges through partnerships with local communities, government, and industry stakeholders.  By centering our efforts on New Jersey’s most affected populations, we believe we can improve environmental health across the state, ultimately promoting a healthier, cleaner, more sustainable home for generations to come.

Photo of Helmut Zarbl PhD
Helmut Zarbl, PhD
CEED Director Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute – School of Public HealthEnvironmental and Occupational Health and Justice
Photo of Debra Laskin PhD
Debra Laskin, PhD
CEED Deputy Director Rutgers-EMSOPPharmacology and Toxicology

We are excited to consider your application to the Rutgers Center for Environmental Exposure and Disease (CEED). 

Apply for Membership

About CEED

  • Founded in 1987, CEED is Rutgers’ flagship program of environmental health research and training.
  • CEED is located within the Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) in Piscataway, NJ and unites researchers from 34 departments across 4 universities (Rutgers University, Princeton University, Rowan University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology).
  • CEED’s Community Engagement Core and Community Advisory Board ensure that our research is responsive to community needs.
  • CEED has four facility cores that provide services to support environmental health science as well as three research cores that facilitate cutting-edge collaborative research.
  • CEED offers pilot funding annually and on a rolling basis to stimulate new environmental science
  • CEED provides training and career development support for early career environmental health scientists as well as established investigators interested in integrating environmental health into their existing research programs.
  • CEED is committed to diversifying environmental health science- 1/3 of our student and post-doctoral trainees are from under-represented background and 60% are women.

Center Membership

The Center currently has 59 members, 24 of whom were recruited during the current cycle to enhance the Center’s footprint in strategic areas including climate change, micro-/nanoplastics, the microbiome, and endocrine disruption. New members are added to expand existing strengths, replace members who have retired or left the University, or to enhance new initiatives such as the Plan to Enhance Diverse Perspectives (PEDP)

CEED MEMBERS

Career Development Program

 CEED has prioritized training center members in science communication. The Career Development Program, which includes creation of mentoring teams, a monthly grant writing group, and opportunities to disseminate research through seminars and community sessions include creation of mentoring teams, research seminars and monthly grant  writing group

Recruiting Diverse Scientists

CEED has benefited from coordinated efforts to diversify our faculty and has successfully recruited leaders in communication and implementation science. CEED has made tremendous gains in engaging diverse trainees in environmental health research. One-third of predocs and postdocs are from underrepresented minority backgrounds and over 60% are women.

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