Michael Greenberg: Master Synthesizer of Risk, Public Health, and Public Policy

Michael Greenberg with wife Gwen Greenberg Michael Greenberg is an extraordinary researcher, teacher, and pioneer who has combined his broad knowledge and expertise in environmental protection, public health, mathematics, environmental planning, and risk evaluations to advance environmental and public health policy, and the field of risk analysis. His research has informed policies and programs at state and federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP). Greenberg is well known to the international risk community as a former Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the journal Risk Analysis and Associate Editor for environmental health for the American Journal of Public Health. He is a Fellow in the International Society of Risk Analysis and has received their Distinguished Career Achievement Award (2003). Early in his career, he was given a Special Award of Merit from the U.S. EPA for education and research (1977). This was an indication of what was to come. Greenberg retired in 2022 after a more than 50-year career at Rutgers University, where he was a Distinguished Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy. He continues writing, consulting, and thinking about emerging global health and well-being issues of our day. He was instrumental in the formation of the Rutgers School of Public Health, and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy. He served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty at the Bloustein School (2000–2017) and as Interim Dean in 2017 and 2018. Greenberg has authored 35 books, 395 articles and book chapters, and now in his 80s, continues to write articles on risk, the implications of current public policy, and potential changes in public health policy. His teaching, one of his favorite aspects of his work, reflected the breadth of his expertise and enthusiasm. He has taught Advanced Multivariate Statistics, Protecting Community Health, Planning, Policy and Health, Environmental Planning and Management, Population Health & Urbanization, and Hazard Mitigation Planning, among others. One theme that ran consistently throughout our interview was Mike's belief in the importance of collaboration with wide range of people, disciplines, and government policy-makers. His strong interdisciplinary bent, conceptualization of complex issues, and mathematical abilities helped him identify and quantify environmental injustices. He has worked in many domains to foster community involvement and address inequity and foster environmental justice, always seeking to find solutions. He has often challenged the status quo and championed the underdog—qualities he learned at a very early age. A few blocks away, they were dynamiting to make way for the Cross-Bronx Expressway. It looked like a war zone – with hard rocks blowing up and lots of dust. My friends and I were thrilled. Unfortunately, I got really sick and had a bad asthma attack. I wanted to find out why I was sick. Family allergies and the dust aggravated my asthma. My eyes and nose, and even my ears itched. Members of my family had the same runny nose and itchy eyes. I started keeping track of when I didn't feel well. I figured out that I felt bad every spring and fall. As a child, Greenberg showed the early signs of inquiry, data collection, and analysis of experiences, which piqued his interest in health as it relates to the environment and genetics. Because he was a “nerd” who liked math and reading all the time, he began to put together the risk from environmental events around him. Noticing, keeping track of when he did not feel well, and putting the facts together led him to think about risk at a very early age. Although he knew the concept and not the word, he started thinking about the connections between genetics, environment, and disease. I loved living in the Bronx! It's one of the poorest areas in urban America. It brought out everyone's competitive spirit. You could really get into winning at stickball. Living close to Yankee Stadium, I watched the New York rivalries. I wanted to win at baseball. Later, when I went to college, I deluded myself into thinking I'd be a great baseball player. Sports carried over to academics – I love to compete and to work with other people. People have different skills and I wanted them to be combined for the betterment of the team! I was in a fist fight that first day, and in a few more days. Finally, my mother had to go into the school and straighten it out. Joining sports and being good at it helped to make it so that no one messed with me! My friends were all tough kids. They had my back later in contact sports, especially football. Greenberg talked fondly of his memories of both the Bronx and Yonkers. His lifelong commitment to social justice, distributive justice, and equity came from Yonkers. (See Greenberg (2021), which several friends called his “catharsis paper.”) Taken together, these two places instilled in him a love for competing, a need to come up with new ideas, and a drive to understand the role of environmental stresses in health. It also taught him how to play well with others, which later led to his strong propensity to team up with others in research, in scientific societies, and in communities. I loved George, but he didn't kid around. He told me to focus less on playing baseball and more on studying. He picked a copy of Harman's Modern Factor Analysis off his shelf and told me to be ready to use the method by next week. The math was easy enough, but our computer center didn't have a software package, so I had to write one and fit it to the pieces they had. The Washington DC study led to Mike's examining of the water supply in New Jersey during the drought of the 1960s; some places had plenty (they had groundwater), and others (dependent on surface water) had very little. The problem was how to take the overall distribution of water in a state, and move it to where it is needed, given the complex system of city, county, and state governments. Greenberg collaborated with others, in this case Robert Hordon, George Carey, and Leonard Zobler to develop a optimization model using math and linear programming to address the problem. They presented it to the state. Governor Richard Hughes said the model would not work because some utilities would not work together. The governor had to issue an order requiring them to cooperate. Eventually, the need for improved water distribution won, and the study led to concrete results. This was Greenberg's first big environmental study, and he then moved on to water pollution models, which fueled his desire to use statistical methods to solve practical problems. I was at the right place, at the right time. I learned how to compete and to play with others while in the Bronx. I also learned to play with smart people, and these translated into knowing how to write papers and get grants in academia. The early 1970s in New Jersey was indeed the right time and place to bring new approaches to environmental controversies. One of Greenberg's earliest studies used computerized, demographic modeling to address the siting of nuclear power plants. He published a book-length analysis of the factors that influenced the willingness of communities to accept or the strength of their objection to siting such facilities, as well as demographic characteristics which made some sites suitable and others not. It was a time when “Not in my backyard” became a familiar phrase. Siting unwanted facilities became a lifelong thread through his work as Greenberg and his colleagues studied other LULUs (locally unwanted land uses), which were not only nuclear plants and toxic waste sites, but low-cost housing and halfway houses. Mike and colleagues used survey data to examine why these uses were enduringly objectionable to many people (Greenberg et al. 2012). While other colleges in Rutgers University maintained their staid demeanor, Livingston College was a hotbed of radical ideas, racial and ethnic diversity, and freedom of speech. There were riots and demonstrations, but there were also some of the brightest students, and many flocked to the courses Greenberg taught that focused on urban planning, environmental exposures, and justice, using mathematics and data to address issues that were rampant in the media. His research and teaching were intertwined. In the late 1970s and early 80s, New Jersey's Route 1 corridor was referred to as Cancer Alley. The press hammered the state on the pollution and sickness people were reporting. Headlines screamed that New Jersey was a terrible place to live. The more press and other media that appeared, the more Greenberg became incensed because he did not believe the assertion. This pressed two buttons for Greenberg: the importance of the press and media in environmental information and policy, and the necessity of real data to support a belief or refute a falsehood. New Jersey was not a terrible place to live. And I think this work has had an impact on the image of our state and the region. It was a crazy time for me. I was on the major television networks and dozens of radio shows explaining the geography of cancer. They drew a cartoon about me, which was as the classical curly-haired professor with glasses trying to explain science to distracted legislators. I had to become an expert in detecting cancer clusters. Later, Dan Wartenberg became my partner on cancer clusters (see Greenberg and Chess 2016). After 40+ years, I remember having “a why didn't I think of that” moment as I read through pages of multivariate data analysis and interpretation, techniques not yet familiar to epidemiologists. His was a truly pioneering application of multivariate statistics to debunk New Jersey's “Cancer Alley” reputation. Michael's cross-disciplinary perspective and geographic analysis provided the scientific support to inform the development of the state's research and regulatory response to reduce exposures to toxic and carcinogenic pollutants. His work guided the development of investigations of toxics in drinking water, air, and industrial emissions. His reports provided the evidence base for the development of state and programs including the EPA waste and the This is one of his work that Greenberg and He the importance of with the of knowing and having data to back up the next the importance of the press and of with communities was an of his research and public It was during this time that he and colleagues Mike and several and on how to of environmental The of these was published in et al. Greenberg in not only state and federal with science but that well with the media is this work, he was presented with two from the Society of While there many in the community who have to the abilities of to about environmental it was Michael Greenberg who the importance of on the of media who the environmental and of the scientific issues to environmental health were to the He and his colleagues a which became an of the This was but a great of It was and Mike had to together courses from two and get them to work together. 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I learned in the Bronx and how to and the had to have a to the that was and it to the people. 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Mike's many was a study for communities the in which he and his colleagues that in of community had by While in an of the other of the had of so many other scientific and Mike was a at the of when only a few of at a at a and in the His role has for over because he an expertise in public health, and mathematical with an commitment to the of all from through to government and have collaborated on many to and health while community during to thinking about communities and the communities around sites et al. Greenberg et al. He not only but he people and their and is to identify their real and issues from the to His perspective has to the of this and he is a to our I have loved with him because and always from a had an to use my education to study issues that I have in for what like my a of many and is my favorite because it has given me the to work with people in other on to of to in and need to in a to a on what this on interdisciplinary thinking and the to make a to the of not take my for have a of time, I read some of more than that and I have more than a but they the of being by the to tough issues with a broad perspective and an an 50-year career at Rutgers University, Greenberg not only taught two to but also and of in their and Mike Greenberg is the and I have I first Mike Greenberg during a when I at his in New where to my in order to and he me at with his and He my by in me as an and then a who me at the of my public health In the early to I was one of the who did their work with It was an time for in environmental health, and his through my research, and then two more of research on and community health was instrumental in my His learned from his to at and his solutions. Mike's baseball and other his made him A of Mike's learned that work think and Mike is who be at and to for throughout It is to how people over time after having known them for I first Michael on a water research at University, and then he was my I have had the to be on research grants with with be of in he and his Michael had the very to as public issues He was to be in very different areas over time. He had the to move from mathematics and which were his of study, through areas of environmental impact and nuclear He to these areas and provided a great of to his work he was also to at many different often at very so that the research became and often became moved from the Bronx to and then to New Jersey he always a focus on geography and and their The of his and provided the to him to move among many different areas and one from the He a of his in his his Protecting Environmental which I for the Journal of Risk drew from and combined his with and In Michael as a very and one be very A team as instilled in his early playing on the of the Mike has brought a team with a and a to his with research and through the of their Mike's to the field of risk analysis is the of his broad in the social and and his strength in This broad him to issues over time and at different geographic to It also him the to be to and their potential when with community the and in public policy. Michael was a pioneer in risk the of and environmental factors in health and disease. I to have Michael as a and throughout my His to and inform public has He has environmental health science and in New Jersey and throughout the He has also a of and public and made an in the environment and public health in New people not of the role that Michael Greenberg in my and the study in the of environmental In the the only time I have him it was in the about me in his book on community he did with me how his were very of what he did for the They were from mother and having in a were that he was to use the math that he had learned to advance public health in the Michael how they were of a that truly this of of this to Michael's to public health, to colleagues and and Michael Greenberg is the who other work while the field between methods and between academics and agencies, and that always and have a on Risk Analysis and on many of who to up to his close with from and close from our by the of who to the of their Michael Greenberg's career such a His have his focus on that Michael is the who is to not only that but also to bring his expertise to on a wide of real to It that people like to work with him. 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