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Dele Ogunseitan
Professor and Chair, Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, UC Irvine Wen Public Health; Professor of Social Ecology
I have three ongoing research programs. I am interested in the environmental and human health effects of industrial development with respect to pollution prevention and remediation. My laboratory is focused on the microbiological basis of pollutant detection and elimination. My research in industrial ecology is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to environmentally-benign product design and life cycle assessment of materials that affect human health and the environment. My work in the interface of health and development is focused on understanding the burden of diseases associated with environmental pollution and specific industrial development projects.
Dr. Daniel Parker
GHREAT Faculty Director
Assistant Professor
I am an infectious disease epidemiologist and a demographer and most of my work concerns spatial and spatiotemporal patterns in infectious diseases. Much of my research has focused on malaria along the Thailand-Myanmar (Burma) border. I have also done research on tuberculosis in migrants, maternal and child health in migrants and refugees, and spatial patterns in infections of the central nervous system. Recently I’ve been analyzing spatial patterns in COVID-19 infections in Orange County. I am particularly interested in the ways that human movement and migration patterns influence the distribution of infectious diseases, treatment seeking behavior and health outcomes. Results of these types of analyses are beneficial for informing public health interventions.
Emily Baum
Assistant Professor, History
I’m an associate professor of modern Chinese history at UC Irvine, where I research and teach on the social and cultural history of twentieth-century China and the history of medicine. My interests generally revolve around issues relating to illness, deviance, alternative medicine, and popular beliefs and superstitions.
Hans-Ulrich Bernard
Professor Emeritus, UC Irvine Wen Public Health; Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Research Interests: Papillomaviruses and cervical cancer
Zuzana Bic
Professor of Teaching, UC Irvine Wen Public Health
Research Interests: Study the impact and application of lifestyle medicine (nutritional medicine, exercise, stress management) on slowing the process of aging and developing of other chronic degenerative diseases (headaches, diabetes II, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia/chronic cancer, fatigue syndrome, arthritis, depression, macular degeneration, drug abuse and others). Develop and implement corporate health programs. Develop health literacy programs for the K-12 curriculum and for the general public.
Tim Bruckner
Associate Professor, UC Irvine Wen Public Health; Planning, Policy, and Design
I conduct population health research, which traces its origins from epidemiology, human ecology and demography. My work examines the extent to which health of societies responds to sudden perturbations in the ambient environment. These perturbations occur at the ecological level and include economic downturns, cold spells, the introduction of a casino, 9/11, and health policy changes. A core tenet of my work is that understanding adaptations to sudden changes in the environment provide insight into human behavior and biology.
Robert C. Detrano
Health Sciences Professor, Radiological Sciences
Research Interests: Developing research and educational programs related to cardiovascular disease in China.
Donald N. Forthal
Professor of Medicine and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Center for Virus Research; Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Forthal studies the immune response to viral infections. In particular, his research is focused on exploring how antibodies interact with cells of the immune system to prevent or modulate HIV and related infections. The research involves the use of in vitro and in vivo models of HIV infection with the eventual goal of developing vaccines and immunotherapies.
Michele Bratcher Goodwin
Director, Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy
Trained in sociology and anthropology, she has conducted field research in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, focusing on trafficking in the human body for marriage, sex, organs, and other biologics. In addition to her work on reproductive health, rights, and justice, Professor Goodwin is credited with forging new ways of thinking in organ transplant policy and assisted reproductive technologies, resulting in works such as Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts (2006) and Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families (2010).
Theodore K. Gideonse
Public Health Assistant Professor of Teaching
Research interests: HIV/AIDS, substance use, incarceration, public health communication, health provider education, qualitative methods, ethnography
Lisa Grant Ludwig
Professor; Public Health Chair, Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention
I conduct basic research in pursuit of my overarching goal: to protect society from the potentially devastating effects of earthquakes. My work is problem-focused and aligned with the mission of Public Health as “the fulfillment of society’s interest in assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy” (Institute of Medicine,1988). The audience for my research is multi-disciplinary, and includes scientists, engineers, planners, healthcare professionals, policymakers and the public. Most of my research focuses on fundamental science questions which have broad impacts and policy implications. For example, the San Andreas fault is a major source of seismic hazard and represents a significant risk to vulnerable populations in California. To understand the potential for future large earthquakes, and the impacts of those earthquakes, I have used geologic methods to explore the spatial and temporal rupture characteristics, and the levels of shaking, produced by prior large earthquakes. With NASA-funded collaborators, I have used spaced-based technologies to measure the deformation of the ground surface from recent damaging earthquakes, and developed tools to model disruption from future earthquakes. Using a variety of methods, I have worked with colleagues to understand the seismic vulnerability of lifeline infrastructure, buildings, and affected populations. I have also studied disaster impacts on academic biomedical research communities, and been involved in formulating policy recommendations for multi-hazard disaster resilience of academic research facilities throughout the U.S.
Heidi Hardt
Assistant Professor, Political Science
My research examines how and why international organizations engage in conflict management. My work examines multilateral decision-making processes, international crisis management operations, international organization efficiency and dysfunction, institutional memory, adaptation and gender mainstreaming in operational effectiveness. I have expertise in NATO, the EU, the UN, the African Union, international security, crisis management, organizational culture, organizational learning, gender representation and gender mainstreaming. My first book was published in 2014 and titled "Time to React: The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response" (Oxford University Press). My second book "Lessons in Failure: Institutional Memory in International Organization Crisis Management" (Oxford University Press) will be published in the spring of 2018. The National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Commission and NATO Science for Peace and Security have funded my research.
Cecelia Lynch
Professor, Political Science
Cecelia Lynch works on religion, ethics and humanitarianism in international affairs, social movements and civil society organizations, and interpretive/qualitative methods in social science research. Her first book, "Beyond Appeasement," took issue with traditional interpretations of realism and idealism by examining interwar peace movements in Britain and the U.S., and assessing at their role in providing the normative underpinnings for the continuation of global international organization from the League of Nations to the UN. Her co-edited book with Michael Loriaux takes a critical perspective on the foundations of international law, asking what kind of moral order does international law represent, and what are the goods entailed in this order. Her co-authored Strategies for Research in Constructivist International Relations, with Audie Klotz, is the first book on the constructivist approach in international relations to analyze substantive issues, methodology, and research design together, and has also been published in Korean. She also published Interpreting International Politics (2014). She is currently completing a book on tensions in Christian ethics over the use of violence, and has completed research for a book on interfaith, Christian, and Islamic humanitarianism, for which she has conducted 200 interviews in West/Central and East Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. She co-founded and co-edits the blog, Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa, at http://blogs.uci.edu/cihablog/, to bring critical and religious voices into debates about humanitarianism, representation, and decoloniality in Africa. She is beginning a new project on gender, religion and modernity in Cameroon.
Michael Montoya
Associate Professor, Chicano/Latino Studies
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Research focuses on the relationship between the creation of medical scientific knowledge on complex diseases and social inequity. This research interest in the social context of disease is a central question in medical anthropology and has significant implications for health care and treatments available for historically disadvantaged communities. Most recent book, "Making the Mexican Diabetic”—analyzes how diabetes has come to be understood in the epidemiological community as a “minority” disease.
Andrew Noymer
Associate Professor, Population Health and Disease Prevention
I am an epidemiologist and demographer who studies infectious diseases, with a focus on mortality from pandemic infectious disease. As such, my current scholarly focus is nearly exclusively on COVID-19.
Kavita Phillip
Professor, History
Kavita Philip is Professor of History, with specializations in modern South Asia, environmental history, and the history of computing. Her publications have engaged with debates in feminist STS, art and science, global development, intellectual property rights, and new media theory.
Annie Ro
Assistant Professor, UC Irvine Wen Public Health, UC Irvine
I am a public health demographer who studies the social determinants of immigrant health. I focus on four interrelated influences on immigrant health: 1) conditions in the sending country; 2) the social context of reception in receiving countries; 3) cultural adaptation processes; and 4) individual demographic characteristics (ie, ethnicity, gender education).
Miryha Gould Runnerstrom
Associate Professor of Teaching Public Health Director
Associate Director, Undergraduate Program Public Health
I am an Associate Professor of Teaching and the Associate Director for the Undergraduate Program in the Program of Public Health at the University of California, Irvine. I teach courses on environmental quality and health (PH60), climate change and disaster management (PH172), health and global environmental change (PH173), and public health and wellness (PH150). I also teach the public health honors thesis course (PH H192). My research interests include behavioral and environmental influences on health and well-being, the scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as how rapid global environmental changes are affecting the health of the world's populations.
Armin Schwegler
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
School of Humanities; Associate Editor, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
My research and course offerings emphasize the study of the Spanish language from a linguistic perspective, while also exploring language in its social, cultural and historical contexts. During the past few years, this has led me to explore in-depth how population genetics (DNA) research can complement linguistic and historical research in an effort to reconstruct Latin America's extensive African origins (slave trade). See "latest publications" on this website for references to recent investigations of mine, or my TED-x talk on: African roots in Latin America: Palenque (Colombia)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY4RTVaD9Sg&feature=youtu.be
Roxane Cohen Silver
Professor of Psychological Science, Medicine, and Public Health; Associate Director, ADVANCE Program, Office of Inclusive Excellence
At some point, most people encounter stressful events that can have a major impact on the course and direction of their lives. They or those they love may be confronted with a disabling accident, serious illness, death, or violent crime. In my work, I attempt to investigate systematically the acute and long-term reactions to these personal traumas, as well as the impact of larger community disasters such as terrorist attacks, earthquakes or firestorms, school shootings, and war. I seek to identify individual, social and societal factors that facilitate successful adjustment to stressful life events and to identify myths concerning the coping process. I also explore the long-term physical, cognitive, emotional, and social effects of traumatic experiences and consider the impact of beliefs and expectations of one's social network on the adjustment process. Finally, my research examines predictors of individual and community resilience, as well as collective responses to disaster.
William C. Tang
Associate Dean, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Dr. Tang’s research focuses on studying biological systems at the micro- and nano-scales with mechanically-derived modalities. In traditional biomechanics, the human body is viewed as an intricate collection of interacting mechanical structures and systems that exhibit both static and dynamic mechanical behaviors. These studies are usually confined to the level of the entire organisms, physiological subsystems, or individual organs. The rapid advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technologies offer a set of powerful tools that allows studying biomechanics at the micro scale. This will shed lights on the finer details of biomechanics, and may uncover fundamental knowledge of the origin of mechanical behaviors in living organisms.Dr. Tang is developing devices and platforms that enable both in-vitro and in-vivo studies of the mechanical aspects in physiological activities involving cells, tissues, and organs. They would be suitable for interfacing and interrogating the mechanical phenomena of interest within the targeted physiological activities at the length-scales that are beyond the reach of traditional biomedical instrumentations. His vision is that these devices and platforms will enable new research efforts to understand the significance of biomechanics at the most basic unit of life -- the cell. He also aims at enabling clinically-relevant applications that require accurate real-time data on the stress-strain distributions in the organs or physiological systems for investigation and diagnosis of the mechanical implications of health and diseases within the organs. One of the ultimate goals is to leverage the understanding in physiological phenomena researched with these tools to develop prosthetic devices to restore both sensory and motor functions that are mechanical in nature within the body.
David Timberlake
Associate Professor, Public Health
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
Once considered a social problem in society, drug abuse was seldom investigated with respect to genetic and other biological mechanisms. This view has changed dramatically in the past few decades as researchers have gained greater understanding of the dopamine-reward system which forms the basis for all substances of abuse. Dr. Timberlake has focused on three areas related to the use and misuse of licit/illicit substances: 1) associations between drug use and candidate gene polymorphisms in the dopamine pathway system, 2) environmental moderation of genetic influences on substance use, and 3) measurement of nicotine dependence and the factors which predict its development.
Charles P. Vega
Clinical Professor, Family Medicine School of Medicine
Director, UC Irvine Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC), Family Medicine School of Medicine Associate Dean
Vega directs the family medicine residency program and the acclaimed Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC), the first medical education program in the country designed to meet the needs of underserved Latinos. As such, he stands at the forefront of one of the most pressing issues in healthcare today.
Jun Wu
Professor, Public Health
Director, Graduate Program in Environmental Health Sciences
Dr. Wu’s interests focus on population-based research of environmental exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, and environmental health disparity. She has extensive experience and knowledge in examining the influences of various environmental exposures (e.g. air pollution, climate, and built environment such as green space, neighborhood resources, walkability) on reproductive outcomes (e.g. maternal and fetal health), children’s health, and other health endpoints. She also has strong interest in research on environmental justice and environmental health disparity, particularly working in partner with communities.
Guiyun Yan
Professor, Public Health
Chancellor's Fellow
Malaria is a major public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. The East African highlands (1,500m above sea level) were either free of malaria or had very low incidences; however, since late 1980s malaria epidemics have frequently occurred in some highland areas. We examine the mechanisms leading to the resurgence of malaria in African high-elevation areas, including climate, land use, topography and antimalarial drug resistance in the Plasmodium parasites. We found that deforestation and swamp reclamation affect microclimatic and nutritional conditions of larval habitats, increase the survivorship of malaria vectors at larval and adult stages, shorten the development time of malaria parasites, and significantly increase mosquito vectorial capacity. We are developing models to predict the spread of malaria infections in an epidemic, and evaluating new malaria vector control methods for outdoor transmission control.
Bhumy Davé
Assistant Clinical Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology
Assistant Medical Student Clerkship Director
Research Interests: Neuromuscular recovery after childbirth, medical education, global health--prevention and treatment of fistulas
Alana M.W. LeBrón
Assistant Professor, Chicano/Latino Studies, School of Social Sciences
Assistant Professor, Public Health
Dr. LeBrón’s primary areas of research include processes that shape the production, maintenance, exacerbation, and mitigation of social inequalities; implications of social inequalities for inequities in health; and opportunities for intervention. Much of Dr. LeBrón’s scholarship centers on the intersections of race, socioeconomic position, immigrant generation, citizenship status, and gender with inequities in health, with a focus on the health of Latina/o communities and community-engaged strategies for understanding and addressing health inequities. Through qualitative and quantitative research methods, Dr. LeBrón’s scholarship examines the mechanisms by which racism shapes health inequities, and factors that disrupt these processes. For example, her research considers the health equity implications of immigration policies and sentiments towards immigrants, neighborhood social and economic contexts, and government-issued ID policies and practices. Dr. LeBrón’s scholarship also evaluates the health equity implications of community-driven strategies to mitigate these processes.
Rufus Edwards
Professor, Epidemiology
Dr. Edwards' research focuses on human exposures to air pollution emissions and subsequent health effects. These include populations in the industrialized world exposed to combustion byproducts from transportation, wildfires and tobacco smoke, and populations in less industrialized nations exposed to emissions from household solid fuel use for cooking and space heating. Dr Edwards was a member of the WHO Indoor Air Quality Guidelines Development Group (GDG) to establish air quality guidelines for household combustion sources, and was lead convening author for the evidence chapter on emissions from household solid fuel use, and a lead author for the chapter on models to link household energy use with indoor air quality. Dr Edwards was also consultant to the WHO to develop the Household Energy Assessment Rapid Tool (HEART) to conduct rapid situational assessments and stakeholder mapping of a country’s readiness to address access to clean energy technologies and has worked with the WHO Urban Health Initiative to identify evidence based strategies to reduce the burden of air pollution in Accra, Ghana, and Katmandu Nepal. Dr Edwards was senior international air pollution consultant to UNICEF Mongolia to address effects of air pollution from rapid urbanization on children’s health which included convening a workshop of international experts on air pollution and health in Ulaanbaatar and drafting the 2016 UNICEF report “Understanding and addressing the impact of air pollution on children’s health in Mongolia”. Dr Edwards was also senior maternal and child health and air pollution consultant to the Asia Development Bank and UNICEF culminating in the 2019 ADB and UNICEF report “Addressing the impacts of prenatal and early life exposures to air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia”. He also serves on the Environment/Climate Advisory Committee for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
Elliot Hui
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
The Hui Research Group at UC Irvine is focused on leveraging microtechnology to understand and improve human health. How does the spatial organization of cells within tissue determine the emergent biological function? Our platforms allow dynamic manipulation of tissue organization during cell culture, enabling unconventional experiments and new insights into cell-cell interaction. We are engaged in problems such as tumor angiogenesis during cancer progression, and the determination of cellular fate in stem cell development. How can we bring hospital laboratory tests into the homes of families living in limited-resource settings? We are building computers that run on air pressure instead of electricity. We envision automated laboratories on a microchip that can be cheaply stamped out of plastic.
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