Stempel College Dean ranks among top scholars in the world

Tomás R. Guilarte, professor and dean of FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, has dedicated more than 30 years of his career to uncovering the lifelong effects of childhood lead exposure.

He was recognized for this work by ScholarGPS in its 2024 rankings. Guilarte was ranked among the top 0.05% scholars — the top nine researchers — in the world studying lead neurotoxicology. The rankings recognized researchers who are both most productive (in terms of publications) and whose work has high impact and quality.

“Tomás is celebrated as a highly ranked scholar for his extensive body of published work, the remarkable influence of his research, and the exceptional caliber of his scholarly output,” said Elizabeth Béjar, provost, executive vice president and chief operating officer at FIU. “Tomás serves as a leader and role model to our faculty researchers and our student body through his dedication to the academy.”

Guilarte’s interest in lead research began in the 1980s when America’s lead problem had reached crisis level. While serving as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Guilarte witnessed firsthand the lead poisoning cases of children at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute. Therapeutic approaches, like chelation therapy, successfully removed the toxic metal from the children’s body. But it didn’t reverse the impacts to their cognitive function, which would cause lifelong problems with memory and learning — impacting nearly every facet of their adult life. 

With continued support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Guilarte has unraveled the many mysteries of how lead changes the brain. He was among the first scientists to document lead’s effects at the cellular level and how these effects trigger a cascade of lifelong consequences from learning difficulties and lower IQ scores to the risk of psychiatric diseases and drug abuse in adulthood.

“This work started many years ago with a simple question: what does lead do to the developing brain?” Guilarte said. “The journey continues today, and after many discoveries, we are currently investigating ways to improve the cognitive deficits resulting from childhood lead intoxication.”

According to UNICEF, 815 million children across the globe have blood lead levels at or above 5 µg/dL. “Even the smallest amounts of lead can have a negative effect on children,” Guilarte added.

Over the years, Guilarte has shared his research findings with the media, appearing in outlets like The New York Times, National Geographic and NBC News. In 2017, Guilarte worked closely with Anna Rothschild, the host of NOVA’s Gross Science, to translate his NIEHS research into insights for WGBH/PBS Digital Studios’ web segment “What Does Lead Poisoning do to the Brain?” and feature-length documentary on Flint’s “Poisoned Water“. Both productions take a deeper look at lead poisoning in adults and children, while illustrating how damaging this heavy metal is to the body, especially the brain and how science may be on the right path to find a treatment.

In recent years, Guilarte has been commended for his research on environmental factors affecting the brain by associations like the Society of Toxicology. In 2018, he received the Distinguished Toxicologist Award from the Hispanic Organization of Toxicologists (which is part of the Society of Toxicology) for his work exploring the toxic effects of chemicals on human health. And in 2020, he received the Metal Specialty Section Career Achievement Award by the Society of Toxicology for his work in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which developmental lead exposure alters brain chemistry and function.

Along with serving as dean of Stempel College, Guilarte runs FIU’s Brain, Behavior and the Environment program, which brings together the scientific community to explore the impacts of environmental causes on neurological diseases. The program also prepares the next generation of scientists in environmental health sciences through two specialized master’s tracks in Brain, Behavior and the Environment.