Current PhD Students

Soma Barsen is a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. Her PhD research focuses on nano- and microplastics, evaluating exposures and assessing the associated health risks. Soma earned her undergraduate degree in cell biology and neuroscience from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She then pursued a Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University to better understand how science can inform public policy and the need to incorporate multiple perspectives, disciplines, and methods of analysis. As part of her MPP, she focused on driving evidence-based change by using scientific findings as the foundation for policymaking. Soma’s master's thesis was a novel study that she independently developed and designed, exploring household sources of microplastics and strategies for developing effective interventions at the individual, community, and national levels to reduce emissions, exposures, and ecological impacts. Her microplastics and policy research was awarded the top thesis prize at the School of Public Policy and the Gold Prize at the 2021 Canadian National Student and Thought Leadership Awards competition. Further expanding her expertise in environmental research, she earned a Master of Environmental Science (MESc) from the Yale School of Environment, where she applied her research framework to Los Angeles, California. To support evidence-based policymaking, Soma has authored two comprehensive reports for government bodies and presented her findings and recommendations to stakeholders, including government agencies, industry representatives, scientific communities, and the public. These contributions have informed policy discussions at various levels of government. In 2023, Soma started her doctoral research under the guidance of Dr. Krystal Pollitt at the Yale School of Public Health. Her extensive multidisciplinary experience in microplastics research and expertise in policy analysis and knowledge translation form the foundation of her doctoral work. Her nuanced understanding of the critical knowledge gaps in microplastics exposure assessment and their implications for human health and public policy positioned her as a valuable addition to the Pollitt Lab team. As part of her research exploring the links between airborne pollutant exposures and climate change, Soma is currently a Fellow of the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health where she is undertaking a pilot study to characterize human exposures in wildfire events in urban areas. With support from the Yuet Mei Chin Innovation Fund, she aims to comprehensively analyze microplastics and their chemical degradation products before, during, and after wildfire events and evaluate their toxicological relevance. Given the increasing incidence of wildfires due to climate change, her work will provide insights into the health impacts of these extreme events and contribute to the development of targeted intervention strategies and solutions.

Giselle Bellia is a PhD Student at the Yale School of Public Health, following her graduation from the department of Environmental Health Sciences MPH program. She holds a BA in psychology from Seton Hall University. She is interested in psychiatric epidemiology, with a specific interest in environmental influences on fetal and childhood neurodevelopment. She also enjoys learning about innovative research and statistical methodologies to explore these interests.

Francisco is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Francisco has a background in Ecology, studying climate through the use of tree rings. His research interests meet in the health effects of climate variability, particularly extreme weather events.

Chengyi Lin is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. She is interested in the health effects of air pollution.

Athina Lisgara is a first-year Ph.D. student in Environmental Health Sciences at Yale School of Public Health. She earned her integrated Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Patras in Greece, focusing on Environmental Toxicology. For her Ph.D., she uses MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI MSI) for bottom-up proteomics to study neurodegenerative diseases in the brain. She also explores liver disease by developing novel metabolomic workflows coupled with MALDI MSI and applying deep learning techniques. Athina actively volunteers with Greek Women in STEM and the Yale Undergraduate Mentorship Program.

Meet the Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology's (CPPEE) Xuejuan Ning.

PhD candidate in EHS at YSPH MPH in CDE at YSPH, class of 2021

Jingyuan is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. She holds a master's degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences from YSPH and completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at UC, San Diego. Her current research interests center around the early origins of neuropsychiatric disorders and possible transmission of disease risks across multiple generations due to adverse intrauterine exposures.

Jean is a PhD student in the Environmental Health Sciences department at YSPH. As a member of the Pollitt Lab, Jean is interested in measuring personal exposure to complex environmental pollutants using the Fresh Air wristband and understanding how these exposures can adversely affect human health. She is also interested in learning about statistical approaches for analyzing multivariate, high-dimensional non-parametric data. Jean earned her MPH from YSPH in 2019. Before coming back, she worked as an environmental health scientist at an environmental and risk sciences consulting firm based in Boston. Her work involved evaluating epidemiology and toxicology literature, as well as analyzing exposure assessment data in support of causation analyses in litigation and human health risk assessments.