May 13, 2026
The YSPH community came together on May 13th to recognize faculty and staff excellence, and to unveil its new ceremonial mace.
2026 Annual Research Awards
Academic Year 2025-2026
Early Career Investigator Research Award
Ke Li, PhD | Associate Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases)
Unraveling the Role of Viral Inference in Disrupting Biennial RSV Epidemics in Northern Stockholm, published in Nature Communications
Investigator Research Award
Mark Schlesinger, PhD | Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
The Shadow Price of Uncertainty: Consequences of Unpredictable Insurance Coverage for Access, Care, and Financial Security, published in The Milbank Quarterly
Investigator Research Award
Zuoheng (Anita) Wang, PhD | Professor of Biostatistics
Inferring spatial single-cell-level interactions through interpreting cell state and niche correlations learned by self-supervised graph transformer, published in Nature Machine Intelligence
Team Science Award
Tamara Beetham, PhD, MPH | Former YSPH PhD Student (Health Policy)
Chima Ndumele, PhD, MPH | Department Chair & Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
Susan Busch, PhD | Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
Medicaid: Increased Patient Access to MOUD in Residential Treatment Associated with Facility Openings and Closures, 2012-22, published in Health Affairs
Team Science Award
Jeannette Ickovics, PhD | Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Daniel Carrión, PhD, MPH | Faculty Director of MPH Programs & Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health)
Robert Dubrow, MD, PhD | Professor Emeritus & Senior Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Environmental Health)
The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Perspectives and Experience of City Leaders from 118 Cities, published in the Journal of Urban Health
Impact Research Award
Colin Carlson, PhD | Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases)
Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change, published in Nature Climate Change
Past Awards
2025 Research Awards
- YSPH Early Career Investigator Research Prize
Leying Guan: A conformal test of linear models via permutation-augmented regressions published in Annals of Statistics
- YSPH Investigator Research Prize
Xi Chen: Early-Life Circumstances and Racial Disparities in Cognition Among Older Adults in the US, published in JAMA Internal Med
- YSPH Investigator Research Prize
Sunil Parikh: Noninvasive in vivo photoacoustic detection of malaria with Cytophone in Cameroon, published in Nature Communications
- YSPH Team Science Prize
Xiaomei Ma, Nicole Deziel, Rong Wang, Josh Warren, Kai Chen, Tormod Rogne: High ambient temperature in pregnancy and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: an observational study, published in Lancet Planetary Health
- YSPH Impact Research Prize
Caroline Johnson, Abhishek Jain, Domenica Berardi, Lingeng Lu: Charting the metabolic biogeography of the colorectum in cancer: challenging the right sided versus left sided classification, published in Molecular Cancer
- YSPH Impact Research Prize
John Pachankis: Structural stigma and LGBTQ+ health: a narrative review of quantitative studies, published in Lancet Public Health
2024 Research Awards
- YSPH Early Career Investigator Research Prize
Zeyan Liew: Association Between Estimated Geocoded Residential Maternal Exposure to Lithium in Drinking Water and Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Offspring in Denmark published in JAMA Pediatrics.
- YSPH Investigator Research Prize
Yize Zhao: Genetic Underpinnings of Brain Structural Connectome for Young Adults published in the Journal of the American Statistical Association.
- YSPH Team Science Prize
Robert Heimer and Lauretta Grau: Receipt of opioid use disorder treatments prior to fatal overdoses and comparison to no treatment in Connecticut, 2016–17 published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
- YSPH Team Science Prize
Caroline Johnson, Krystal Pollitt and Lingeng Lu: Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid and Perfluorooctanoic Acid Promote Migration of Three-Dimensional Colorectal Cancer Spheroids published in Environmental Science & Technology.
- YSPH Impact Research Prize
Rafael Pérez-Escamilla: Breastfeeding: crucially important, but increasingly challenged in a market-driven world published in Lancet.
- YSPH Impact Research Prize
David Paltiel and Gregg Gonsalves: Increased HIV transmissions with reduced insurance coverage for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis: Potential consequences of Braidwood Management v. Becerra published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases
2023 Research Awards
- Achieving Health Equity
Jacob Wallace: "Disparities in Health Care Spending and Utilization Among Black and White Medicaid Enrollees" published in JAMA Health Forum - JAMA Network.
YSPH co-authors: Chima D. Ndumele
- Data Science
Virginia Pitzer: "Vaccination with BNT162b2 reduces transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to household contacts in Israel" published in Science.
YSPH co-authors: Joshua Warren, Forrest W. Crawford, Daniel Weinberger
- Planetary Health
Kai Chen: "Associations between long-term drought and diarrhea among children under five in low- and middle-income countries" published in Nature Communications
YSPH co-authors: Virginia Pitzer, Dr. Robert Dubrow
Kai Chen: "Residential and Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Heat Vulnerability in the United States" published in GeoHealth
YSPH co-authors: Daniel Carrión, Dr. Robert Dubrow
- Preventing Next Public Health Threat
Nicole Deziel: "Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Exposure and Risk of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Case–Control Study in Pennsylvania, 2009–2017" published in Environmental Health Perspectives | Vol. 130, No. 8 (nih.gov)
YSPH co-authors: Joshua Warren, Xiaomei Ma, Cassie Clark
- Reducing Disease Risk
Jeffrey Townsend: "Reducing Disease Risk Attribution of Cancer Origins to Endogenous, Exogenous, and Preventable Mutational Processes" published in Molecular Biology and Evolution - Oxford Academic (oup.com)