Thursday November 13, 2025
New NIEHS Director, Dr. Kyle Walsh
Kyle Walsh, Ph.D., was selected as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. As part of his responsibilities, Dr. Walsh will also direct the National Toxicology Program, administratively headquartered at NIEHS.
Dr. Walsh is a leading neuroepidemiologist whose work on glial senescence and gliomagenesis has shed light on how genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors can interact to influence the development of human diseases. Before joining NIEHS on October 10, he led an innovative interdisciplinary research program at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he studied how the interaction of hereditary and modifiable risk factors can affect brain health, cancer outcomes, and aging.
“Today marks an exciting new era for NIEHS,” said Secretary Kennedy. “Dr. Walsh’s scientific expertise and leadership will lead the institute to achieve even greater breakthroughs in our understanding of how the environment can affect biological systems and human disease.”
“Dr. Walsh is focused on advancing rigorous research that leads to actionable insights and improves the health of all Americans,” said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, Ph.D. “I look forward to seeing NIEHS innovate under his leadership. »
“I am deeply honored to serve as director of NIEHS, the world’s leading research organization focused on how the environment affects human health,” said Dr. Walsh.
“Our institute is well-positioned to merge population-level scientific approaches with laboratory research on how environmental factors can affect key biological mechanisms, while integrating insights from genomics, metabolomics and other ‘omics frameworks,” added Dr. Walsh. “We will foster an interdisciplinary, collaborative research approach that draws on the expertise of scientists and grant recipients at NIEHS as well as other NIH institutes and centers. In doing so, we will continue to advance essential scientific knowledge that helps promote health across the lifespan and prevent chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and dementia, among others.”
At Duke University, Dr. Walsh served as associate professor of neurosurgery, pathology, population health sciences, and pediatrics. He also headed the Division of Neuroepidemiology. He was a principal investigator at the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and a member of the Duke Cancer Institute, where he co-directed the neuro-oncology research program. Additionally, Dr. Walsh helped guide research efforts following the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, providing scientific leadership to the state’s U.S. Senators and opening the door to important collaborations among multiple federal agencies.
Dr. Walsh holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular genetics and anthropology from The Ohio State University, Columbus. He received his Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. At NIEHS, Dr. Walsh succeeds the institute’s former director, Rick Woychik, Ph.D., who has accepted a new position in the NIH Director’s Office to help advance Making America Healthy Again initiatives.
About the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS): NIEHS supports research aimed at understanding the effects of the environment on human health and is part of the National Institutes of Health. For more information about NIEHS or environmental health topics, visit https://www.niehs.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): The NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, is comprised of 27 institutes and centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and studies the causes, treatments, and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information about the NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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