Dr. Robert E. Black

Board Member | Director of the Institute for International Programs, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Robert E. Black, M.D., M.P.H. is Professor and Director of the Institute for International Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Black is trained in medicine, infectious diseases and epidemiology. He served as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and worked at institutions in Bangladesh and Peru on research related to childhood infectious diseases and nutritional problems. He was Chair of the Department of International Health of the Bloomberg School of Public Health from 1985-2013.

Dr. Black’s current research includes field trials of micronutrients and other interventions, and evaluation of preventive and curative health service programs in low-and middle-income countries. In the last 25 years he led work that demonstrated the benefits of zinc supplements on child growth, and in the prevention and treatment of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia. His other interests are related to the use of evidence in policy and programs, including estimates of the causes of child mortality, the development of research capacity and the strengthening of public health training. As a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and advisory bodies of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and other international organizations, he assists with the development of research and policies intended to improve child health.

Dr. Black is the recipient of the Programme for Global Paediatric Research Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Child Health in 2010, the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health in 2010, the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award in 2011, the Nutrition Leadership Award from Sight and Life in 2013, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award in 2016, and the Pediatric Nutrition Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Nutrition in 2018. He chaired the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative and serves on the governing boards of Nutrition International, and Vitamin Angels. He has more than 700 scientific journal publications and is co-editor of the textbook “Global Health.”