Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship in Epigenetics

Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of Medicine, Whiting School of Engineering

Established in 2013 by Michael R. Bloomberg

MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG is the founder of Bloomberg LP, Philanthropist, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, and three-term mayor of New York City.

He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after leading the company he started in 1981 for 20 years. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg was elected mayor less than two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Under his leadership, the city rebounded faster and stronger than expected on issues ranging from education to health to economic development.

A lifelong philanthropist, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on five main areas: public health, education, the environment, the arts, and government innovation. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions on urgent issues, including climate change, illegal guns, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment.

Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.

Held by Andrew Feinberg

ANDREW FEINBERG is considered to be a founder of the field of cancer epigenetics, which is the study of heritable changes in gene expression—active versus inactive genes—that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. He contributes his expertise in human epigenetics to cutting edge research in cancer and applies these concepts to understand the role of epigenetics in all aspects of human disease.

Feinberg was the first to demonstrate how genetics, epigenetics, and the environment interact to cause disease, and pioneered the field of epigenomics, developing many of the experimental and statistical tools to study epigenetics at a genome-scale level Feinberg’s research is now focused on studying the epigenetic basis of normal development and disease, including cancer, aging, and neuropsychiatric illness. He is one of 10 principal investigators on NASA’s Twins Study analyzing the epigenetic effects of spaceflight on the Kelly identical twins, comparing samples from twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly during Scott’s year in space.

Feinberg was appointed as an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University in 1983 and was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2015.