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Annual Research Awards

Jeffrey Townsend

Nicole Deziel

Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences). 2023 Research Award: Preventing Next Public Health Threat

Other YSPH co-authors: Joshua Warren, Associate Professor of Biostatistics; Xiaomei Ma, Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases); and Cassie Clark (first author, former PhD student now postdoc at YSPH)

Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Exposure and Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Case–Control Study in Pennsylvania, 2009–2017 | Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 130, No. 8 (nih.gov)

News Summary: Proximity to Fracking Sites Associated with Risk of Childhood Cancer

Jacob Wallace

Assistant Professor of Public Health (Health Policy). 2023 Research Award: Achieving Health Equity

Other YSPH co-authors: Chima D. Ndumele, Associate Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)

Disparities in Health Care Spending and Utilization Among Black and White Medicaid Enrollees | JAMA Health Forum | JAMA Network

News Summary: Reducing Disparities Among Medicaid Enrollees: What Can States Do?

Kai Chen

Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences). 2023 Research Award: Planetary Health

Other YSPH co-authors: Virginia Pitzer, Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), and Dr. Robert Dubrow, Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences)

Associations between long-term drought and diarrhea among children under five in low- and middle-income countries | Nature Communications

News summary: Drought Linked to Higher Diarrhea Risk in Children


Other YSPH co-authors: Daniel Carrión, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health), and Dr. Robert Dubrow, Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences)

Residential and Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Heat Vulnerability in the United States - Manware - 2022 - GeoHealth - Wiley Online Library

News Summary: National Heat Vulnerability Index Reveals Neighborhoods at High Vulnerability to Heat


Virginia Pitzer

Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases). 2023 Research Award: Data Science

Other YSPH co-authors: Joshua Warren, Associate Professor of Biostatistics; Forrest W. Crawford, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, and Daniel Weinberger, Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases)

Vaccination with BNT162b2 reduces transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to household contacts in Israel | Science

News summary: Delta Variant, Waning Immunity Reduced Pfizer Vaccine’s Effectiveness Against Household Transmission

Past Awards

  • 2022 Research Awards

    Team Science Award

    Amy Bei, Sunil Parikh, Josh Warren, and Daniel Weinberger: “Mapping partner drug resistance to guide anti-malarial combination therapy policies in sub-saharan Africa” published by PNAS.

    Luke Davis, Lauretta Grau, Linda Niccolai, Donna Spiegelman, and Xin Zhou: “Lessons learned from covid-19 contact tracing during a public health emergency: prospective implementation study” published in Frontiers in Public Health.

    COVID-19 Award

    Albert Ko, Nathan Grubaugh, Saad Omer and Chantal Vogels: “Impact of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants on mRNA vaccine-induced immunity” published in Nature.

    A. David Paltiel and Jason Schwartz: "Assessing COVID-19 prevention strategies to permit the safe opening of residential colleges in Fall 2021” published in the in Annals of Internal Medicine.

    Early Career Investigative Award

    Kai Chen: “Role of Meteorological factors in the transmission of SARS-COV-2 in the United States” published in Nature Communications.

    Health Equity Research Award

    Terika McCall: “Development of a mobile app to support self-management of anxiety and depression in African American women: usability study” published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (ranked as the top health informatics journal.)

    Yusuf Ransome: “Neighborhood social cohesion and inequalities in covid-19 diagnosis rates by area-level black/African American racial composition” published in the Journal of Urban Health.

    Investigator Award

    Michaela Dinan: “Analysis of sociodemographic, clinical and genomic factors associated with breast cancer mortality in the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, End-Results and Medicare database” published in JAMA Network

    Becca Levy: “Impact of Media-based negative and positive age stereotypes on older individuals mental health" published in Journal of Gerontology.

    Fan Li: “Sample size considerations for stepped wedge designs with subclusters” published in Biometrics.

    Research Awards to PhD Candidates

    Hanna Ehrlich (EMD): “Mapping partner drug resistance to guide anti-malarial combination therapy policies in sub-saharan Africa,” published in PNAS.

    Tyler Shelby (EMD): “Lessons learned from covid-19 contact tracing during a public health emergency: prospective implementation study,” published in Frontiers in Public Health.

  • 2021 Research Awards

    Early Career Investigator Awards

    Abby Friedman: “Smoking to cope: Addictive behavior as a response to mental distress” published in Journal of Health Economics.

    Krystal Pollitt: “The Fresh Air Wristband: A Wearable Air Pollutant Sampler” published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

    Covid Research Award
    Anne Wyllie: “Saliva or Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens for Detection of SARS-CoV-2” published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
    Team Science Award

    Jacob Wallace, Chima Ndumele, and Anthony Lollo: “Comparison of Office-Based Physician Participation in Medicaid Managed Care and Health Insurance Exchange Plans in the Same US Geographic Markets” published in JAMA Network Open.

    Investigator Award

    Dan Weinberger: “Estimation of Excess Deaths Associated With the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, March to May 2020”, published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

  • 2020 Research Awards

    Early Career Investigator Award
    Nathan Grubaugh: "Travel surveillance and genomics uncover a Hidden Zika Outbreak during the waning epidemic" published in Cellpress.
    Science Prize
    Albert Ko: "Impact of preexisting dengue immunity on Zika virus emergence in a dengue endemic region" published in Science.
    Investigator Awards

    Hongyu Zhao: "A statistical framework for cross-tissue transcriptome-wide association analysis" published in Nature Genetics.

    Zack Cooper: "The price ain't right? Hospital prices and health spending on the privately insured" published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.