Past Seminars
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
2:00pm – 3:00pm
Auditorium F, DHMC
“The expanding complexity in children’s environmental health research: Can we find clarity amidst the chaos?” by Birgit Claus Henn, MPH, ScD.
Dr. Birgit Claus Henn’s research focuses primarily on exposure to environmental toxicants and their impact on child development. She has examined associations between metals, pesticides, and other chemical exposures and neurodevelopment in multiple pediatric cohorts worldwide, spanning critical periods of development from prenatal exposure through late childhood. Dr. Claus Henn is the PI of an NIEHS Career Development Award to utilize novel statistical approaches for analyzing chemical mixtures data in order to understand neurodevelopmental effects of multiple metals. Other research interests include exposure to chemicals in consumer products, effects of toxicants on birth outcomes, and the development and use of novel biomarkers. Dr. Claus Henn also serves as the director of the PhD program in Environmental Health.
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, April 3
12:30-1:30pm
Auditorium G, DHMC
The GenX Exposure Study: Investigating Exposure to Newly Identified PFAS in North Carolina
by Jane Hoppin, PhD.
Dr. Jane Hoppin is an environmental epidemiologist with interest in the health effects of pesticides and other agricultural exposures, phthalates, and, most recently, emerging water contaminants including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). She is principal investigator of the GenX Exposure study designed to characterize exposure to PFAS chemicals among people in Wilmington and Fayetteville, NC. She has published extensively on the respiratory and allergic impacts of pesticides and phthalates in adults and is particularly interested in appropriate characterization of exposure of these compounds. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University and Deputy Director of the NC State Center for Human Health and the Environment. She has authored over 215 peer-reviewed publications. She is currently an associate editor at Environmental Health Perspectives and PLOS One. She received her BS in Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Davis and her SM (Environmental Health) and ScD (Environmental Health and Epidemiology) from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, March 6
12:30-1:30pm
Borwell 658W, DHMC
Phthalates and breast cancer risk: evidence from a Danish prospective cohort study
by Thomas Ahern, PhD, MPH.
Thomas Ahern is an assistant professor in the departments of surgery and biochemistry at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. He earned Master of Public Health and PhD degrees in epidemiology from Boston University, after which he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Much of his current research uses Denmark’s immense population-based medical and social registries to measure the impact of drug regimens and patient molecular factors on breast cancer outcomes.
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
12:30-1:30pm
Borwell 658W
Rotavirus: Forgotten But Not Gone
by Dr. Benjamin Lee
Benjamin Lee, MD is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist with an interest in enteric and vaccine-preventable infections in children. He is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont (UVM), Larner College of Medicine, and conducts research with the UVM Vaccine Testing Center and UVM’s new COBRE center, the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center (TGIR). He has an active clinical and translational research program evaluating human immune responses to rotavirus, the leading cause of infectious diarrhea in children worldwide, following oral vaccination and natural infection in Bangladesh. His goal is to advance knowledge of human immune responses to enteric infections to inform improved the design, administration, and evaluation of vaccines for the developing world.
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Evidence from New Zealand and the US
by Dr. Zaneta Thayer
Zaneta Thayer is an assistant professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on understanding how early life environments shape patterns of human biology and health. She has conducted research in Aotearoa/New Zealand and among Native American populations in the United States.
Epidemiology Departmental Seminar Series
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Non-tobacco related environmental exposures and COPD
by Dr. Laura Paulin
Dr. Paulin is a pulmonary/critical care physician-scientist whose research focuses on the health effects of environmental exposures, including occupational exposures and residential indoor air pollution, on individuals with and at-risk of obstructive lung disease.
Special Seminar
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
The Applicability and Limitations of Translating the Neonatal Salivary Transcriptome into Newborn Care
by Dr. Jill Maron
Dr. Maron is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and a neonatologist at Floating Hospital for Children. Her laboratory focuses its research efforts on exploring neonatal development, physiology and pathology through salivary gene expression analyses.