Stefania Papatheodorou Joins the Rutgers School of Public Health

Stefania Papatheodorou, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., will be joining Rutgers School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology as an associate professor on January 3rd, 2024.

Papatheodorou is a trained obstetrician and gynecologist, and her research lies on the intersection of climate change, air pollution, pregnancy, and children’s health. She has been the primary investigator on multiple epidemiological studies examining the association between prenatal exposure to climatic factors, air pollutants, and in-utero fetal growth and has documented the vulnerability of the fetal brain to exposure to high temperatures and air pollutants during pregnancy. She was appointed as one of the seven 2023-2024 National Institutes of Health Climate and Health Scholars.

“I am looking forward to joining a very strong group of researchers in the field of maternal child health and collaborating in multidisciplinary research,” says Papatheodorou. “By producing robust evidence, we will contribute to the continuous improvement of the health and lives of birthing parents, children, families and ultimately the entire population.”

Papatheodorou has also examined associations between climate factors, air pollution, and adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirth, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, and pre-eclampsia. Her research utilizes a wide range of administrative data sources, such as electronic health records, birth registries, and medical claims data. From these sources, she has constructed large-scale pregnancy cohorts linked with high-resolution environmental exposures and uses these big data to provide causal estimates. She is the principal investigator of a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-funded R01 that examines the effects of prenatal and early childhood exposure to climate factors and air pollutants on children’s neurodevelopmental outcomes.

“Dr. Papatheodorou’s work linking environmental exposures to pregnancy outcomes and child development is of critical importance,” says Jason Roy, professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. “I am excited for Dr. Papatheodorou, a recognized leader in the field, to join our department and make important new discoveries that will benefit families everywhere.”

Papatheodorou received her medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Ioannina in Greece and her M.Sc. degree in epidemiology from the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in association with Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to coming to Rutgers, she was a lecturer in epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.