Robert Cohen, M. D., FCCP

Dr. Robert Cohen is Clinical Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University Of Illinois School Of Public Health. He is also Professor of Medicine and Director of the Occupational Lung Disease Program at Northwestern University.

His major research interests are occupational lung disease, particularly mineral dust exposed workers. He has served as a consultant to several agencies of the United States government in areas of mining related health issues including the Respiratory Health Division of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Mining Safety Health Administration, the Division of Coal Mine Workers Compensation of the US DOL. He is the Principal Investigator on the Black Lung Center of Excellence as well as the Black Lung Clinics Program funded by the US Department of Health and Human Service Office of Rural Health Policy of the Health Resources and Services Administration. He also serves as the medical director for the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease, the organization of federally funded black lung clinics.

He was a member of the Mine Safety Research Advisory Committee for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health mining program, and has worked closely with MSHA and the State of West Virginia to review mine disasters. He has worked extensively on international projects including a study respiratory disease in coal mining populations in Ukraine, Colombia, and recently for the Department of Natural Resources and Mining as well as the Vale Mining Corporation of Queensland, Australia to review their medical surveillance programs for coal mine dust lung diseases.