Baylor University, a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, provides a vibrant campus community for more than 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship.

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Leadership Award

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
2016

Eugene Kenaga Membership Award

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Council
2016, 2015, 2013

Presidential Citation for Exemplary Service

Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Water and the Environment

Visiting Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development.  2013, 2009

Scientific and Technological Achievement Award

U.S. , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Fellow, Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute

National Environmental Health Association

Certificate of Merit

Editor-in-Chief, Environmental Management (Springer Nature)

Editor, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Wiley)

Editor, Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (Wiley)

Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health

Predicted and observed therapeutic dose exceedances of ionizable pharmaceuticals in fish plasma from urban coastal systems.

Global scanning of antihistamines in the environment: Analysis of occurrence and hazards in aquatic systems.

Are harmful algal blooms becoming the greatest inland water quality threat to public health and aquatic ecosystems?

Current status and future challenges in the molecular design for reduced hazard.

Human interaction with the environment remains one of the most pervasive facets of modern society. In a world characterized by rapid population growth, unprecedented global trade and digital communications, energy security, natural resource scarcities, climatic changes and environmental quality, emerging diseases and public health, biodiversity and habitat modifications are routinely touted by the popular press as they canvas global political agendas and scholarly endeavors.

Human Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: Current and Future Perspectives (Emerging Topics in Ecotoxicology: Principles, Approaches and Perspectives, Vol. 4)

Dr. Brooks' interdisciplinary research interests broadly include understanding how anthropogenic activities and stressors interact with various levels of biological organization, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions.  He actively engaged in environmental toxicology and chemistry, environmental public health, and hazard and risk assessment studies on six continents. Dr. Brooks and his students focus current research on water quality and water reuse/recovery, comparative toxicology and pharmacology, applied ecology, sustainable molecular design, environmental chemistry and bioaccumulation, developing approaches to define risks of contaminants of historical and emerging concern, natural resource extraction and the ecology and toxicology of harmful algae blooms. This research contributes to developing science-based approaches to define and manage complex environmental and health issues.

Environmental Health, Risk & Contaminants

Urbanization & Sustainability

Water Quality and Water Reuse

Faculty Profile Page, Baylor University

Google Scholar Citations

ResearchGate

ORCiD: 0000-0002-6277-9852

Runaway algae growth causes neurological problems for those with liver disease

UN-endorsed CityU project on monitoring global estuaries

Overflowing sewers, runoff from chemical plants and seepage from toxic waste sites have created a hazardous stew in the waters covering much of houston.

A sea of health and environmental hazards in houston’s floodwaters

Dr. Bryan Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies, examines water quality, environmental health & contaminants, and sustainability issues, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas. He has published water-quality research specifically regarding the Dickinson and Buffalo bayous in the Houston area, as well as the Houston ship channel. 

He's available to speak on:

* Status of surface water contamination
* Associated risks to people and ecosystems in the Houston/Galveston area
* What information is needed to prioritize interventions and restoration activities
* Implications for system recovery and management





Baylor Water Quality & Environmental Health Expert Can Speak on Water Contamination Challenges Post Hurricane Harvey

key-environmental-quality-research-questions-identified-for-north-america-by-multidisciplinary-team

Distinguished Professor, Environmental Science and Public Health; Director of Environmental Health Science

As density in cities increase along with other global megatrends, researchers are working to address environment and health challenges in collaborative ways.
Using a recently pioneered process, a multidisciplinary team of North American researchers, government agencies and businesses leaders identified priority research questions for the United States, Canada and Mexico in an effort to tackle pressing environmental quality issues.

In an article published  in the journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies and director of the environmental health science program at Baylor University, led the Global Horizon Scanning Project (GHSP), which focuses on identifying environmental and health issues internationally. Brooks also facilitated GHSP workshops in Africa, Australia, Central and Southeastern Asia, Europe and Latin America.

“We face palpable global environment and health challenges, which require innovative understanding, tools, products and systems to prevent, diagnose and manage adverse outcomes to public health and the environment,” Brooks said. “The GHSP was initiated as part of a larger effort to identify important international research needs. It is essentially a research roadmap towards achieving more sustainable environmental quality, which is necessary to protect human health, biodiversity and ecosystem services.”

As part of the study, members of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s (SETAC) and the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Environmental Chemistry and Agrochemcials Divisions submitted questions that were then synthesized during a workshop by scientists and engineers from the academic, government and business sectors.

“This project is intentionally inclusive, bottom-up, multidisciplinary, multisector and transparent,” Brooks said. “Answering these priority research questions will not be easy, but strategically doing so promises to accelerate progress to address grand challenges that matter to everyone.”

“This report provides a comprehensive global perspective covering some of the world’s most critical environmental challenges that will impact society for decades to come,” said Sherine Obare, Ph.D., dean and professor of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at UNC Greensboro and chair elect of the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Chemistry Division. “SETAC’s ability to engage scientists from around the globe has led to forums that identify urgent challenges including, next generation 21st century analytical chemistry methods, strategies to predict chemical exposure, understanding multiple stressors and new approaches in chemical risk assessment. This project will define the scientific directions needed to transform environmental science and engineering, globally.”

“The GHSP reflected in this paper has harnessed the insights of scientists not only across North America but around the world,” said Charles Menzie, Ph.D., Global Executive Director of SETAC. “Each brings tremendous experience and a strong sense of what is needed for future research. However, the distillation of these many into a set of consensus questions provides a much needed foundation for charting our direction for research to inform environmental policy. SETAC is proud to have supported this through our global meetings and now through our journal.”

A related GHSP manuscript identifying priority environmental quality questions for the Australasiaregion of Oceania was also recently published in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. GHSP efforts from Africa and Asia are ongoing with plans to report priority research questions from these global regions in the next year.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines.



Key Environmental Quality Research Questions Identified for North America by Multidisciplinary Team

environmental-scientists-identify-most-pressing-issues-posed-by-chemicals-in-the-environment-in-europe

Environmental scientists have identified 22 key research questions surrounding the risks associated with chemicals in the environment in Europe.

Chemicals released into the environment by human activity are resulting in biodiversity loss; increased natural hazards; threats to food, water and energy security; negative impacts on human health and degradation of environmental quality.

Now an international study, coordinated by scientists from the University of York, Wageningen University and Baylor University, has identified the most important research questions that need to be answered to fill the most pressing knowledge gaps over the next decade.

They include questions about which chemicals we should be most concerned about and where the hotspots of key contaminants are around the globe, as well as how we can develop methods to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.

The research, which resulted from a recent "big questions" exercise involving researchers from across Europe, aims to serve as a roadmap for policymakers, regulators, industry and funders and result in a more coordinated approach from the European environmental science community to chemicals in the environment.

“Our research has highlighted international scientists' research priorities and our key knowledge gaps when it comes to the risks and impacts of chemicals,” said one of the lead authors of the study Alistair Boxall, Ph.D., with the University of York’s environment department. “The study aims to help focus scientific effort on the questions that really matter and inform decisions about the type of research needed to update policies and regulations.”

Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies at Baylor University, who also coordinates a much larger global horizon scanning exercise, said the project is “intentionally transparent, inclusive of multiple sectors and multidisciplinary.”

“Though this paper focuses on critical research needs for Europe, we partnered with the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry to perform similar studies in North America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America,” Brooks said. “In fact, output from the Latin American study was recently published. This unprecedented exercise, which also includes a key partnership with the American Chemical Society in North America, is for the first time identifying global research priorities from academic, government and industry scientists and engineers to understand, avoid and manage adverse outcomes of chemicals in the environment.”

A key suggestion in the report is that the basic and translational research is needed to advance robust assessments of chemical risks to the environment and human health.

“These big research questions aim to reduce uncertainty during scientific evaluations of environmental contaminants and to advance innovation and sustainability through development of less hazardous chemicals to public health and the environment. Such research recommendations from our European colleagues are thus timely, necessary and internationally important if we are to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals,” Brooks said.

Towards Sustainable Environmental Quality: Priority Research Questions for Europe is published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. It is one of six papers in a global horizon scanning study.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines.



Environmental Scientists Identify Most Pressing Issues Posed by Chemicals in the Environment in Europe

baylor-water-quality-environmental-health-expert-can-speak-on-water-contamination-challenges-post-hurricane-harvey

Dr. Bryan Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies, examines water quality, environmental health & contaminants, and sustainability issues, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas. He has published water-quality research specifically regarding the Dickinson and Buffalo bayous in the Houston area, as well as the Houston ship channel. 

He's available to speak on:

* Status of surface water contamination
* Associated risks to people and ecosystems in the Houston/Galveston area
* What information is needed to prioritize interventions and restoration activities
* Implications for system recovery and management




Source:  

Baylor professor Bryan Brooks and his research group are working on finding chemicals and materials who are less toxic to humans and the environment.

2014-15 Big 12 Academic Minute - Baylor - Water Research

Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., speaks about his new research at Baylor. For more videos like this, visit www.youtube.com/Baylor.

Baylor Water Research: It's Greater Than That

Carollo's GONE FISHIN'

"In my mind, research is the purest form of teaching and mentoring."

Go behind the research with Baylor University environmental science professor Bryan Brooks on how and why he engages students in his research.

Behind the Research: Dr. Bryan Brooks, Baylor Environmental Science Professor

"[Baylor's mission] perfectly aligns with the type of work we're trying to do... improving lives, protecting ecosystems, and ultimately preventing challenges."

At Baylor University, research is driven by compassion, curiosity & courage.

Dr. Bryan Brooks of Baylor's Department of Environmental Science explains:

Why Research at Baylor? "To improve lives, protect ecosystems, &amp; prevent challenges."

In this episode, Dr. Bryan Brooks from Baylor University shares his inspiring career journey, groundbreaking research, and the crucial role of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing today’s environmental health challenges. He also explores the importance of mentorship, highlighting a mentee’s success story while emphasizing the growing need for well-prepared graduates to meet the rising demand in environmental health science. Looking ahead, Dr. Brooks discusses pressing global issues such as rapid urbanization, chemical production, waste management, and the essential link between human health and the environment.

This video can also be viewed at
https://www.cdc.gov/wcms/video/low-res/eh-nexus/2024/32353235CDC-Bryan.mp4

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