Tongzhang Zheng is appointed Bliss Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

Tongzhang Zheng , who has been named the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health, studies environmental pollution and human health, particularly in cancer epidemiology and etiology related to environmental hormone disruptors, genetic susceptibility, and the interaction of genes and the environment.

Zeng, who received his Doctor of Science degree from Harvard University, has showed that immunosuppression due to increasing exposure to ultraviolet radiation and hair dye use is partly responsible for the worldwide increase in Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

He has also investigated the relationship between female breast cancer and environmental exposures to certain pesticides and PCBs. In addition, Zheng has examined the relationship between circadian rhythm disruption and the risk of female breast cancer, and found evidence that exposure a higher level of light at night increases risk of the disease.

Zheng has worked with numerous Chinese government officials and scientists to develop educational and research programs in China that have benefited Yale faculty and students. He helped develop three major cohort studies and a case-control study of liver cancer in China. He is also the co-scientific director for two summer programs that train epidemiologists and biostatisticians worldwide. In 1992 he was selected as Teacher of the Year by students at the Yale School of Public Health.