Join the Team

Join the Team

Pursuing Impact

The Exposure Science and Sustainability Institute (ESSI) is pursuing a healthier world through research, education, and action. We work collaboratively and innovatively to create meaningful and lasting impact.

Industrial hygienists need to be prepared for new and emerging health risks, employing best practices in all core competency areas.

This creates the need for new training materials and courses. When this is recognized by a company, or by the individual, we can help. Courses and tools that are central to our research, including exposure assessment, Bayesian decision analysis, exposure modeling, and control of hazards are available and can be tailored to meet specific needs. ESSI is well-positioned to offer education and training through a supportive and active learning culture. Our training ensures that practicing IH and EHS professionals have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.

ESSI features state-of-the-art research training programs and numerous opportunities for students and trainees at all levels to acquire critical skills and experience that position them as future leaders in public health research and practice. The goal of our work is to bring change and a lasting positive effect to the health of communities. Through problem-solving and innovative thinking we lay the groundwork for a healthier environment.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The strength of ESSI is demonstrated through collaboration. By partnering with experts from the School of Public Health, the Masonic Cancer Center, and others, professional experience and strengths can be leveraged to tackle complex environmental health science questions and challenges. Graduate student researchers and Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Health Science professionals have the exciting opportunity to work alongside these experts in a supportive learning environment while finding solutions to real-world problems.

The University of Minnesota and ESSI are proud advocates for novel research. They are composed of well-renowned groups of researchers/professors who driven to understand the interactions between humans and the environment to better understand its impact on human health. These are institutes that have a large support staff of faculty who are recognized experts in their own scientific fields, integrating their research interest into numerous multidisciplinary collaborative projects.

Andrew

PhD Student

COMMUNITY TIES

Our research focuses on real-world solutions to environmental health science challenges. We partner with companies and organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, through our work. We assist companies and industry groups needing accurate, representative product exposure data to support product stewardship guidance and human health risk assessment in the U.S. and globally. Groups who need to quantify exposures to environmental contaminants present in their communities engage ESSI to understand their health risks and determine the need for and extent of remediation.

ESSI supports community-based participatory research, building bridges between researchers and community partners looking to increase their community environmental health resilience.

ESSI offers a number of exciting opportunities for graduate students, industrial hygienists, and trainees.

There are many other ways to engage with ESSI: stay informed, support our work, volunteer in our lab, learn more.

FACILITIES

Our full-size exposure chamber provides a controlled environment in which to conduct simulated tasks and exposure scenario studies is located in a more than 140 square meter facility on the University of Minnesota campus. The facility also includes two wet-chemistry laboratories equipped with fume hoods, a wind tunnel, two biological safety cabinets, and an enclosed cabinet for filter-testing. This unique lab environment has considerable equipment for generating and measuring gases, vapors, and particulate matter, including biological aerosols.

In addition, through a partnership with the Masonic Cancer Center and the Screening, Prevention, Etiology and Cancer Survivorship (SPECS) program to which Dr. Arnold is a member, we have access to state of the art laboratory facilities and equipment in the Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building.