History of Engineering Public Health

Tuesday, January 21, 2024, 6-7:15pm (Eastern)

~ University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health Lecture ~

Jennifer Rogers, MS (Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science)

How has public health been engineered to make modern cities more livable, and why is sanitary engineering no longer something one majors in? Infrastructure such as sewer systems, water filtration, waste removal, and pest control remain under-appreciated bulwarks of health today, but how we train experts in them has changed. Drawing from the Georgia Tech archives, among others, this talk will explore how public health departments, college departments, professional societies, and city planning initiatives all had a part in engineering American public health.

Image credit: Getty

Jennifer Rogers is the Most Recent President of the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS). She is a historian of medicine, technology, and science. Her degrees are a BS in the History, Technology, and Society and an MS in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A lifelong educator, researcher, and public historian, Rogers joined the board of SAHMS in 2014, serving as webmaster, registration coordinator, vice president, and two terms as president.

The lecture recording can be found here. The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks its dues-paying members and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world.

Image credit: Jennifer Rogers, Georgia Tech Archives