Robert Lawrence is the Center for a Livable Future Professor and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Health Policy, and International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Lawrence is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He served for three years as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service.

Dr. Lawrence is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, the American Public Health Association, and Physicians for Human Rights. From 1970 to 1974, he was a member of the faculty of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he helped develop a primary health care system funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity. In 1974, he was appointed as the first director of the Division of Primary Care at Harvard Medical School where he subsequently served as the Charles S. Davidson Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of Medicine at the Cambridge Hospital until 1991. From 1991 to 1995, he was the director of health sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation.

From 1984 to 1989, Dr. Lawrence chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force of the Department of Health and Human Services and served on the successor Preventive Services Task Force from 1990 to 1995. He currently serves as a consultant to the Task Force on Community Preventive Services at the CDC. Dr. Lawrence has participated in human rights investigations on behalf of PHR or other human rights groups to Chile, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, the Philippines and South Africa.

In 1996 Dr. Lawrence became the founding director of the Center for a Livable Future at the School of Public Health. The Center is an inter-disciplinary group of faculty and staff that focuses attention on equity, health, and the Earth's resources. Research, education, and advocacy examine the relationships among diet, food production systems, the environment, and human health. The Center's webpage is www.jhsph.edu/clf/

Environmental impacts of industrial agriculture, Food Security, Health and Human Rights

Sedgwick Memorial Medal, APHA, 2009

Sidney Zubrow Award, The Pennsylvania Hospital, 2008

Albert Schweitzer Humanitarianism Prize, 2002

Master, American College of Physicians, 1998

Founders Award, Physicians for Human Rights, 1997

Leadership and Achievement Award, Society of General Internal Medicine, 1997

John Atkinson Ferrell Prize, UNC, 1997

Special Recognition Award, Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, 1993

Institute of Medicine, NAS, 1978

Maimonides Prize, 1964

Phi Beta Kappa, 1964

Harvard National Scholarship, 1957-64

Lawrence RS, Chan I, Goodman E. Poverty, Food Security, and the Right to Health. Georgetown J on Poverty Law & Policy 2008; 25(3):583-604.

Sapkota A, Sapkota AR, Kucharski M, Burke J, McKenzie S, Walker P, Lawrence RS. Aquaculture practices and potential human health risks: Current knowledge and future priorities. Environ Int 2008; doi:10.1016/j.envint.2008.04.009.

Beydoun MA, Gary TL, Caballero BH, Lawrence RS, Cheskin LJ, Wang Y. Ethnic differences in dairy and related nutrient consumption among US adults and their association with obesity, central obesity, and the metabolic syndrome. Am J Clin Nutr 2008; 87:1914-25.

Lawrence RS, Gootman JA, Sim LJ, eds. Adolescent Health Services: Missing Opportunities. Committee on Adolescent Health Care Services and Models of Care for Treatment, Prevention, and Healthy Development (Lawrence RS, chair), Board on Children, Youth, and Families, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2008.

Yaktine AL, Harrison GG, Lawrence RS. Reducing exposure to dioxins and related compounds through foods in the next generation. Nutrition Reviews 2006; 64:403-409.

Miller W, Robinson LA, Lawrence RS, eds. Valuing Health: Cost Effectiveness Analysis for Regulation. Committee to Evaluate Measures of Health Benefits for Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation (Lawrence RS, chair), Board on Health Care Services, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2006.

Lawrence RS. Promoting Social Justice through Education in Public Health. In: Levy B and Sidel V, eds: Social Injustice and Public Health. New York: Oxford University Press 2006.

König A, Bouzan C, Cohen J, Connor W, Kris-Etherton P, Gray G, Lawrence RS, Savitz DA, Teutsch S. A Quantitative Analysis of Fish Consumption and Coronary Heart Disease. Am J Prev Med 2005; 29(4):335-46.

Bouzan C, Cohen J, Connor W, Kris-Etherton P, Gray G, König A, Lawrence RS, Savitz DA, Teutsch. A Quantitative Analysis of Fish consumption and Stroke Risk. Am J Prev Med 2005; 29(4):347-52.

Cohen J, Bellinger DC, Connor WE, Kris-Etherton PM, Lawrence RS, Savitz DA, Shaywitz BA, Teutsch SM, Gray GM. A Quantitative Risk-Benefit Analysis of Changes in Population Fish Consumption. Am J Prev Med 2005; 29(4):325-34.

Walker P, Rhubart-Berg P, McKenzie S, Kelling K, Lawrence RS. Public Health Implications of Meat Production and Consumption. J Public Health Nutrition 2005; 8(4):348-356.

O’Toole TP, Arbelaez JJ, Lawrence RS, et al. Medical debt and aggressive debt restitution practices: predatory billing among the urban poor. JGIM 2004; 19:772-778.

Walker P, Lawrence RS. Challenges of Greening a Decentralized Campus: Making the Connection to Health. In: Barlett PF and Chase GW, eds: Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change. Cambridge: The MIT Press 2004:259-270.

Boulware LE, Daumit GL, Frick KD, Minkovitz CS, Lawrence RS, Powe NR. Quality of clinical reports on behavioral interventions for hypertension. Prev Med. 2002; 34(4):463-75.

Horrigan L, Lawrence RS, Walker P. How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture. Environmental Reports 2002; 110:445-456

Boulware LE, Daumit GL, Frick KD, Minkovitz CS, Lawrence RS, Powe,NR. An Evidence-Based Review of Patient-Centered Behavioral Interventions for Hypertension. Am J Prev Med 2001; 21(3):221-232.

Daumit GL, Boulware E, Powe, NR, Frick KD, Minkovitz CS, Anderson L, Janes, G, Lawrence, RS. A Computerized Tool for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Preventive Interventions. Public Health Reports, 2001 Supplement 1, Volume 116, 244-253.

Lawrence RS. Prostate Cancer Screening. In: Branch WT, ed. The Office Practice of Medicine, 4th Edition. St. Louis: Mosby Inc. 2003:1107-11.

Lawrence RS. Cervical Cancer Screening. In: Branch WT, ed. The Office Practice of Medicine, 4th Edition. St. Louis: Mosby Inc. 2003:1104-07.

Alexander M, Lawrence RS. Periodic health assessment of asymptomatic adults. In: Branch WT, ed. The Office Practice of Medicine, 4th Edition. St. Louis: Mosby Inc. 2003:1085-92.

Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply: Strategies to Decrease Exposure. Committee on the Implications of Dioxin in the Food Supply (Lawrence RS, chair), Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 2003, 318pp