Dr. Charles Branas leads one of the nation's oldest and largest departments of epidemiology and is known for his focus on especially challenging health issues and interventions that improve basic determinants of health, such as access to green space, housing, and medical care. He led the first major NIH-funded gun violence research study, and is the founding principal investigator of two injury research centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control. 

His research has been cited by landmark Supreme Court decisions, in Congress and by major news outlets, and he has mentored scientists into leadership posts ranging from top universities to the White House. He has worked at multiple schools of public health, engineering and medicine, including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, Penn, the University of San Carlos in Guatemala and the University of Otago in New Zealand, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.