Environmental Health Equity with Edmund Seto

On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, Edmund Seto, PhD joined our Community Dinner to share his environmental health equity work.

Edmund is a professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. He received his PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the quantification of exposures and risk as they relate to environmental and occupational health. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial methods, mathematical models, and novel information technologies, Edmund has conducted exposure assessments for built environment studies of air pollution and noise exposures, as well as assessments of exposures to infectious agents in global health contexts.

A computer scientist by training, Edmund and his lab group explore new technologies such as the use of mobile devices and low-cost sensor systems to infer the relationship between individual and population behaviors and how they relate to exposures to environmental and workplace hazards. Edmund’s rapid prototyping lab fosters interdisciplinary collaboration to create new technologies to improve public health.

Before coming to the University of Washington, he was associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley. He co-directed the UC Berkeley Health Impact Group to advance the field of Health Impact Assessment. He also served as associate faculty Director for the UC Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Edmund currently serves as director of the UW Center for Environmental Health Equity, a US EPA- and DOE-funded Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC) for EPA Region 10 states (AK, ID, OR and WA). He is also a Nature and Health Steering Committee member and researcher.