Corporation for Science Advancement
Just the Facts
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
THE LERNER CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROMOTION HOSTED ITS THIRD NATIONAL
of a $50,000 pilot grant from the Research
study zoonotic threats. Pei will be one of three principal investigators on a project titled “Impact of Climate Variability on Foreign Animal Disease: Forecasting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.”
De Pinho Selected as Teaching Scholar Helen de Pinho, MBBCH, MBA, FCCH, associate dean of educational programs and assistant professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, has been selected to be a 2023 Provost’s Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar. As one of eight from across the University, she will create a plan for supporting, changing, and innovating the culture of
CONFERENCE EARLIER THIS YEAR, exploring strategies to debunk misinforma-
tion about climate change, abortion, and global vaccinations. An escalation in misinformation and misunderstanding of scientific evidence during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of this topic. Turning the Tide: Combatting Misinformation in Public Health drew more than 80 attendees and hosted faculty and staff from Columbia University, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Yale University, and more. Journalist Renée Loth, an opinion columnist for The Boston Globe, led a workshop on Op-Ed Writing for Professionals. In her keynote presentation, Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH, program director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute, told attendees that communicating about public health and taking on misinformation “isn’t just a matter of having the right skills and using the right tools; it also means you also have to have courage.”
teaching and learning within her own department or school and across campus.
Fried Awarded French Honor Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, received the Insignia of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur,
France’s
highest
order
of
merit. The award recognizes her scientific advances on aging and her outstanding public health leadership.
Chowkwanyun Receives Award Donald H. Gemson Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH, is the 2022 recipient of the Milbank Quarterly Early Career Award in Population Health from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. The award recognizes significant contribu-
Secrets of Chornobyl’s Dogs
tions to population health science by an
IN THE FIRST STEP TOWARD UNDERSTANDING HOW DOGS—AND PERHAPS HUMANS—
individual who has received a PhD or MD in
ADAPT TO EXPOSURE TO RADIATION, HEAVY METALS, OR TOXIC CHEMICALS, research-
the past 10 years.
ers have conducted a pioneering investigation into the genetic structure of two groups of stray dogs living within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. The 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster released enormous amounts of ionizing radiation and toxins into the air and water. “Somehow, two small populations of dogs survived in that highly toxic environment,” says Norman J. Kleiman, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences and a study co-author. The two groups, which rarely interbreed, showed significant genetic differences between them. The team confirmed that the two populations were genetically distinct and was able to identify 391 regions in the dogs’ genomes that differed between the two locations. “Some of these markers point to genes associated with genetic repair,” Kleiman says. Understanding the genetic and health impacts on the dogs will strengthen broader understanding of how to mitigate environmental hazards in humans.
Miller Reappointed to Research Advisory Panel Gary W. Miller, PhD, vice dean for research strategy and innovation, has been invited to serve a second term on the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program advisory panel. All of Us is collecting data from a diverse group of 1 million U.S. participants for a database that will inform thousands of studies for decades to come.
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COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H
2023–2024 EDITION
