His research is based out of the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA), also in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. He has a Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences (Epidemiology) from the University of Alberta. His primary areas of interest are pediatric asthma and respiratory epidemiology but he is also interested in various aspects of child health, lung health, and rural health. Dr. Lawson has been involved in several population based studies and large database studies looking at childhood asthma frequency, morbidity, and risk factors. He is especially interested in asthma along the urban-rural gradient and the reasons for geographic variation in asthma prevalence.