Charles C. Branas is the chair of the department of epidemiology at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Mailman School of Public Health The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Columbia University. Located on the Columbia University Medical Center campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, the school i ...

, a position he assumed on January 1, 2017. Before joining the Mailman School, he taught and conducted extensive research at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Perelman School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

Research

Branas is known for studying human geography, public health, emergency medical care, and multiple aspects of

gun violence Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, a ...

, which he first became interested when he saw its effects firsthand while working as a paramedic. A 2004 study of his showed that rural US residents were at greater risk of gun suicide than urban residents were of gun homicide, and was subsequently cited by the US Supreme Court. In 2009, he published the first study to show that individuals in possession of firearms were more than four times as likely to be shot than those not in possession. Also that year, he published a study showing that heavy drinkers were 2.67 more likely to be shot during an assault than people who did not drink at all. The study found that this association was largely because the drinkers spent so much time near liquor stores that sold alcohol to-go. In 2018, he led the first series of citywide randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showing that greening vacant lots, as well as requiring homeowners to put glass in their windows, resulted in significantly fewer gun assaults, shootings, and self-reported fear and depression among residents. His work has shown that approximately 15% of the spaces in US cities is vacant or abandoned, a total area about the size of Switzerland, making low-cost citywide interventions like these of high value to urban planners and policymakers.

References

Living people American epidemiologists Gun violence researchers Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health faculty Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the National Academy of Medicine {{US-physician-stub