Education

• Joint-Ph.D. Candidate Population Health and Environment & Resources, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• M.S. Harvard University (2006)
• B.A. University of Wisconsin, Madison (2000)

Research Interests

I am interested in understanding the environmental determinants of human health and disease at the population level and assessing low-cost technologies aimed at reducing environmental risks in developing countries. My current research project is investigating the cardiovascular health effects of exposure to biomass smoke from indoor cooking and heating among women and children in rural Yunnan, China. I am also studying the relationship between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and blood pressure among children and adolescents in the United States.

Awards and Honors

• U.S. Fulbright Scholarship Award
• Air & Waste Management Association Research Scholarship
• National Science Foundation East Asian-Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI)
• Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Chinese
• National Science Foundation IGERT Fellowship
• Catherine B. Reynolds Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship, Harvard University

Awards

• Graduate Student Mentor Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2008
• Young Investigator Award, Academic Pediatric Association, 2007
• American Academy of Achievement, Student Honoree, 2006

Publications

• Baumgartner J and Trautmann N. “Commentary: Biomass energy in environmental, health and livelihood strategies: turning a double-exposure into a double-dividend in rural northwest Yunnan, China” (accepted; China Environment Series Issue 10 (2008))
• Bautista LE, Correa A, Baumgartner J, Breysse P and Matanoski GM. “Indoor wood-charcoal smoke and acute respiratory infections in young children in the Dominican Republic.” (submitted)
• Baumgartner J, Murcott S and Ezzati M. “Reconsidering appropriate technology: the effects of user behavior on the bacterial removal performance of two household drinking water filter systems.” Environ. Res. Lett. 2 (2007).
• Rajagopal B, Robinson BE, Baumgartner J, et al. From Promise To Performance: Ecological Sanitation as a Step Toward the Elimination of Manual Scavenging in India. MIT Center for International Studies (CIS), Cambridge, US (2006).
• Baumgartner J. Recommendations for the practical application of the United Nation’s General Comment: Right to Water in low-income countries. A report submitted to the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (2003).

International Experience

• 2007-8 Research, Yunnan (China)
• 2006 - Summer Associate, Navsarjan Trust, India
• 2005 - Summer Associate, CARE International, South Africa
• 2004 - Research, Kenya
• 2000-2 - Peace Corps field volunteer, Sichuan (China)

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