Meet the 2026 Awardee: Augusto A. Litonjua, MD, MPH, ATSF
Augusto Litonjua, MD, MPH, ATSF received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of the Philippines. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, NY, then completed a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He then completed a Research Fellowship in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and obtained an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, both in Boston, MA. While he is a clinically trained adult Pulmonologist and Intensivist, he currently serves as Division Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology, and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY. His research program in developmental origins investigates pre- and peri-natal exposures in the development of asthma. He also investigates early exposures that positively and negatively affects lung growth development, including chemical and air pollution exposure, and vitamin D levels interacting with cigarette smoke exposure. He led the multicenter Vitamin D Antenatal Asthma Reduction Trial and has been on several national scientific Steering Committees and Data and Safety Monitoring Committees. He is a co-investigator on the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
Description
The award is given for outstanding contributions to environmental, occupational, or population health through leadership in research, education, and/or public health. The award will be presented at the ATS International Conference. The awardee will receive a plaque and a monetary award of up to $500. Nominations of diverse candidates (by gender, race/ethnicity, country, area of focus and primary occupation) are highly encouraged
Criteria
- Associate or full professor (or equivalent, i.e., 15 or more years from their first faculty/investigator appointment)
- Outstanding contributions to environmental or occupational health as evidence by major leadership in research directly relevant to prevention; and/or major leadership in education or public health practice.
- The relevance of the contribution to preventing and decreasing the morbidity and mortality of respiratory disorders caused by environmental or occupational exposures.
- ATS membership is desirable but not required
- Nominee's curriculum vitae must also be included along with a list of the nominee’s publications
Note: Award nominations will be carried over for 3 years and the Planning Committee may choose to move nominees to a different award category for optimal review.