Current Research

R. William Field, MS, PhD

Professor
Office: 104 IREH
Phone: (319) 335-4413
Email: bill-field@uiowa.edu

Environmental/Occupational
Epidemiology & Risk Assessment

Dr. Bill Field serves as a Professor in both the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Department of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. He is also Director of the Occupational Epidemiology Training Program within the NIOSH funded Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety at the University of Iowa, and co-director of the Pulmonary Outcomes Core in the University's Environmental Health Sciences Research Center.

Dr. Field’s research career began over 25 years ago in the days following the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident in Pennsylvania where he established the use of native wild animals as bioindicators of radiation contamination. Prior to his academic appointment at the University of Iowa, Dr. Field worked in a variety of areas including Health Physics at the University of California, Berkeley; environmental/radiation consulting; and as a research epidemiologist. Over the past 15 years, a major focus of his research has been developing methods which improve retrospective residential radon risk estimates, see Heartland Radon Research and Education Program. Dr. Field’s initial interest in environmental epidemiologic exposure assessment has led to a similar interest within the field of occupational epidemiology. Current occupational epidemiologic studies he directs include a retrospective mortality and cancer incidence study of over 35,000 former and current DOD munitions workers.

Professor Field’s National and international scientific activities include serving as an associate editor for several scientific journals, collaborating extensively with both North American and European investigators of residential radon epidemiologic studies, chairing the radon measurement working group for the World Health Organization’s International Radon Project, and service on a National Academy of Science Committee reviewing the Worker and Public Health Activities Program Administered by the Department of Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services.

To view Dr. Field's Biosketch and Community of Science (COS) information, including recent publications, click here.