Professor Eric N. Liberda, PhD

Dr. Eric N. Liberda is a director and professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health at Toronto Metropolitan University. He completed both his undergraduate and first master's degrees in Environmental Health from the University of Waterloo, a second master's degree in Toxicology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and a doctorate in Environmental Medicine (Environmental Health Sciences, Exposure Assessment and Toxicology) at the New York University School of Medicine. He is an active member of the Society of Toxicology, the Society of Toxicology Canada and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

As a scholar and an academic, his research programs have been driven by a desire to protect human health with evidence-based methods. This has resulted in a strong record of both influential publications and highly competitive research grants, all of which have supported studies examining the impacts of pesticides, toxic metals, and nanoparticles on human health.

Dr. Liberda's work also considers the broad and holistic determinants of health and well-being, and has integrated both physiological and psychosocial measures of stress, resilience, and wellness into environmental health science, especially through long-standing research collaborations with Indigenous communities in Canada. This work, which is characterized by community-based participatory research principles, includes attention to biomedical (e.g., metabolomics, biomarkers, and exposure assessment) and culturally based conceptions of health and well-being.

This work supports initiatives that aim to link environmental exposures and projects, with broader determinants of well-being to support healthier and more resilient communities. In all of his work, Dr. Liberda has been focused on transdisciplinary approaches and supporting teams that span toxicology, epidemiology, Indigenous studies, engineering, public health policy, and the social sciences. This has included both projects using emerging technologies and fields (metabolomics, 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning, and others), and embedding Indigenous knowledge systems, worldviews, and governance structures in both research programs and on teams. This type of work, which is truly integrative and collaborative in nature, not only generates new methods and insights, but also supports important knowledge translation activities that focus on supporting the equity, sustainability, and self-determination of partner communities.