He was a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York before being appointed to the faculty of the Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2011. Dr. Engel also holds an appointment as associate scientist in the Epidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Engel's current research is focused primarily on cancer and other health outcomes among persons exposed to oil spills, persistent organic pollutants and risk of cancer, and pesticides and risk of breast cancer and other chronic diseases. He teaches a graduate course and lectures on environmental and disaster epidemiology.