About J. Richard Pilsner

Dr. Pilsner joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the School of Medicine at Wayne State University in February 2021 as Professor, the Robert J. Sokol, MD Endowed Chair of Molecular Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development. Dr. Pilsner holds a joint appointment with the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) Program at Wayne State University. Dr. Pilsner is noted for his work on paternal preconception environmental exposures contributing to reproductive success.  His work has been among the first human studies to investigate the influence of phthalate exposure on sperm epigenetics, and it has appeared in journals such as Human Reproduction, as well as mainstream media such as NPR and the Boston Globe.

Dr. Pilsner joins Wayne State University from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst’s School of Public Health and Health Sciences, where he established two arms of environmental health research: a population-based cohort, the Sperm Environmental Epigenetics and Development (SEEDS) study and use of mouse models. Both lines of research have been supported by multiple and active NIH NIEHS grants as well as international collaborations that extend to the Russian Science Foundation. Dr. Pilsner was also named as a Center for Research on Families Scholar, focusing on the epigenetic impacts on the paternal germline, and has been nominated for several teaching awards. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2018. 

After completing his dissertation, Dr. Pilsner was awarded a three year Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society (RWJHS) Research Fellowship at the University of Michigan in 2007 where he examined the influence of in utero exposures to lead and arsenic on cord blood DNA methylation. He received a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in 2007.  Dr. Pilsner's dissertation, guided by Dr. Mary V. Gamble, was entitled, "The metabolic interactions between inorganic arsenic, selenium and folate nutritional status on the impact of genomic DNA methylation" where he capitalized on the prospective cohort of Bangladeshi adults from the NIEHS-funded Superfund Project.  Dr. Pilsner also received his MPH from Columbia University, where in 2001, he was awarded a two year EPA STAR fellowship to study the effects of manganese exposure on mitochondrial respiration and iron homeostasis. Lastly, Dr. Pilsner received his B.A. in Environmental Sciences at Hamline University, St. Paul, MN in 1995 with a thesis entitled, Hierarchal Behavior Patterns among Gray Wolves.