Rima Habre, ScD

Dr. Habre is a tenured Professor of Environmental Health and Spatial Sciences at USC, jointly appointed in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, and the Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute.

A native of Beirut, Lebanon, her doctoral training is in in Environmental Health at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, with expertise in exposure science and air quality. Her lab uses cutting edge, real-time environmental and geo-location sensors, remote sensing, and geospatial analysis to investigate environmental links to disease.

Her lab’s research is transdisciplinary in nature and focused on two major, interconnected themes: 1) Advancing precision environmental health by developing state-of-the-art exposure science (or “exposomics”) methods; and 2) Understanding the health effects of co-exposure to complex air pollution mixtures and social stressors across the life course, in vulnerable populations, and in light of climate change, especially for unregulated pollutants (e.g. ultrafine particles, wildfire smoke) and microenvironments (e.g. indoors).

Dr. Habre is PI/Director of the CLIMA Climate-Related Exposures, Adaptation and Health Center at USC (NIH P20HL176204,, https://clima.usc.edu/), and MPI/co-Director of the NEXUS: Network for Exposomics in the U.S. (NIH U24ES036819), the first of its kind NIH-wide research coordination center tasked with advancing exposomics and precision environmental health (https://www.nexus-exposomics.org/).

Select appointments:
— State-of-the-Science and the Future of Cumulative Impact Assessment National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee member (2024-2026)
— Standing Committee on the Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions, NASEM (2022 – 2023)
— Emerging Science on Indoor Chemistry consensus study and committee, NASEM (2021- 2023)
— Technical Expert Panel, Expanding Climate Change and Health Data Infrastructure to Advance Health Interventions: Linking Health and Environmental Data to Improve Patient and Community Health, HHS Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (2023 – current)
— Source Specific Burden of Disease Methodology Expert Working Group, WHO Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group, World Health Organization (2021 – current)

Dr. Habre’s Lab Research Interests
1. Developing measurement and modeling methods for advancing air pollution exposure science
2. Use of real-time mHealth technologies, personal monitoring, sensors, geolocation and informatics for precision environmental health
3. Epidemiological investigations of the effects of air pollution mixtures and sources on the health of vulnerable populations across the life course
4. Cumulative impact of environmental health disparities and climate change on exposure, adaptation, and health burden in affected populations

• American University of Beirut: Penrose Award […] Best Combination of the Qualities of Scholarship, Character, and Leadership, 2006
• NIH/NIEHS: Young Investigator Award (scientific pursuits and accomplishments, future leadership potential), 2017
• NIEHS: Feature in NIEHS Stories of Success: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/success/2022/habre, 2022
• NIEHS: NIEHS Keystone Seminar Speaker, featured: https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2022/4/feature/1-feature-pre, 2022

• American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon — BS — 2006 — Environmental Health
• Harvard Cyprus Program, Nicosia, Cyprus — MSc — 2007 — Environmental Health
• Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA — ScD — 2012 — Environmental Health: Exposure, Epidemiology, and Risk

• Biological signatures of prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and fetal and infant growth
  NIH · R21ES036649 · Sep 19, 2025 – Sep 18, 2027 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
• Wildfire smoke, heat and cardiovascular risk across the life course
  NIH · R01ES036559 · Jun 23, 2025 – Apr 30, 2030 · Role: Multiple Principal Investigator
• CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation, and Health Equity (CLIMA) Center
  NIH · P20HL176204 · Sep 17, 2024 – Aug 31, 2027 · Role: Principal Investigator
• NEXUS: Network for Exposomics in the U.S.
  NIH · U24ES036819 · Sep 4, 2024 – Aug 31, 2029 · Role: Multiple Principal Investigator
• Children?s Cardiovascular Health and the Impacts of Heat Stress and Wildfire Smoke
  NIH · R01ES036185 · Jan 23, 2024 – Nov 30, 2029 · Role: Multiple Principal Investigator
• Lifecourse Approach to Developmental Repercussions of Environmental Agents on Metabolic and Respiratory health (LA DREAMERs)
  NIH · UH3OD023287 · Sep 21, 2016 – Aug 31, 2023 · Role: Multiple Principal Investigator
• The Los Angeles PRISMS Center: The Biomedical REAl-Time Health Evaluation (BREATHE) Platform
  NIH · U54EB022002 · Sep 30, 2015 – Aug 31, 2020 · Role: Project 3 Multiple Principal Investigator
• Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES)
  NIH · P50MD015705 · Sep 1, 2015 – Mar 31, 2025 · Role: Project 3 Principal Investigator

• Indoor air
• Air sensors
• Machine learning
• Exposomics
• Environmental health
• Air quality
• Climate change
• Remote sensing
• Exposure science
• Health disparities
• Epidemiology
• Social determinants
• GIS
• Spatial analysis
• Informatics
• Climate adaptation and vulnerability
• Wildfire smoke
• Disaster research
• Cumulative impacts
• Environmental pollution

• How Wildfire Smoke Affects Your Health (2026)
• Neighborhoods of Color East of LAX Have Some of the Highest Health Risks, Data Shows, ABC7 (2021)
• Precision Environmental Health Advanced by Exposure Research, NIEHS Environmental Factor (2022)
• Creating More Precise Exposure Profiles: Rima Habre, ScD, NIEHS Stories of Success (2022)
• The Scientific Case Against Gas Stoves, National Geographic (2023)
• Fixing Air Pollution Could Dramatically Improve Health Disparities, Scientific American (2023)
• The Washington Post – Here are the Toxic Threats that Emerge after an Urban Wildfire (2025)
• NPR Science Friday – The Toxic Aftermath of An Urban Fire (2025)

• Peters, Anne
• Chen, Jiu-Chiuan
• McConnell, Rob
• Farzan, Shohreh
• Eckel, Sandrah
• Garcia, Erika