BSCD Summer Public Health Research Fellowship - 2020

Extended application deadline - all BSCD Fellowship application deadlines have been extended to April 17th. Please bear in mind that while BSCD Summer Fellowships are currently scheduled to proceed these opportunities may have to be modified or cancelled if the situation warrants. More information about the current status of on-campus research can be found on the University’s research continuity planning for COVID-19 site.  

The University of Chicago Department of Public Health Sciences seeks to engage college students in mentored research projects in public health. The Department of Public Health Sciences is the home in the Biological Sciences Division for the core quantitative research fields in public health: biostatistics, epidemiology and health services research. Our faculty both lead research projects in these fields and participate in interdisciplinary teams with faculty in other departments to address complex problems in health and healthcare, in our communities and around the globe.

A primary objective of the BSCD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship is to provide undergraduate students an immersive research experience through close interactions with faculty, research teams and research projects. Projects will focus on interdisciplinary topics that bring biostatistical and quantitative methods to improve understanding of complex problems in population health and develop new solutions.

The Fellowship covers a $5000 stipend, plus the $350 Student Life fee for the summer research period. 

Fellowships will be 10 weeks in duration and based in Chicago. Fellows will work with their faculty mentors on research projects. Project descriptions are provided below and applicants need to identify interest in working on one or more of the projects in their application. Projects typically involve data analysis using a computer except where noted.

Requirements vary based on project. Please see project descriptions. 

Eligibility varies based on project. Please see project descriptions. 

Applications should include the following: 

·        Statement of Interest or Cover Letter: Approx. 250 words. Please state here the project (or multiple projects), to which you are applying (see Project Descriptions below for full list).

·        Resume or CV

·        Unofficial Transcript

April 10th 2020

Please Note: If you are applying to multiple BSCD Fellowship Grants, please fill out the following BSCD Preference Form - https://careeradvancement.wufoo.com/forms/bscd-research-2020/

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by a faculty panel.

Many longitudinal studies that have collected survey data about sleep have found that self-reported usual sleep hours predict mortality among older adults, in a surprising U shape with both short sleepers (< 6 hours) and long sleepers (> 8 hours) having higher death rates. We have carried out a number of studies demonstrating that self-reported sleep hours are not very accurate and responses may be influenced by psychosocial and health states as well as actual sleep. We have collected both survey and objective sleep data in a national cohort study of older adults. This project will compare the strength and the shape of the association between sleep hours and death rates, with several different approaches to measuring sleep duration both by survey questions and objectively. We will also have newly linked cause of death data this summer. Undergraduate researchers can help with this research by participating in the following types of activities under faculty supervision:

·        Carry out descriptive statistics and regression analyses of whether sleep duration predicts death and cause-specific death.

·        Conduct literature review of previous relevant studies

REQUIREMENTS: A strong foundation in statistics including regression analysis, such as Statistics 224 Applied Regression and some experience with computer programming. Programming experience in Stata preferred, but R is also acceptable.

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago undergraduate students at all levels are eligible as long as they have the statistics prerequisite

FACULTY SPONSOR: Diane Lauderdale http://health.bsd.uchicago.edu/PersonProfile/Diane-Lauderdale

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women in the U.S. and the world. There is a gap in breast cancer mortality between African Americans and European Americans. Public Health Sciences has an on ongoing program aimed at understanding the socioeconomic, biological, genomic, and health care delivery factors affecting racial disparity, and developing intervention to eliminate disparity and improve health outcomes of all breast cancer patients. Undergraduate researchers can help with this research by participating in the following types of activities under faculty supervision:

- Epidemiological questionnaire development, interview, and data entry;

- Conducting systematic reviews of the literature; and

- Data clean and analysis.

REQUIREMENTS: Experience manipulating datasets using a statistical package or programming language (e.g. R, Stata, SAS, Python) is preferred. 

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago Undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

FACULTY SPONSOR: Dezheng Huo (https://profiles.uchicago.edu/profiles/display/37017)

 

REQUIREMENTS: A solid command of the Python programming language is required; experience in natural language processing and other automated methods for textual analysis are a plus; interests in public health and social-media based research are also pluses

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago undergraduate students at all levels are eligible. 

John Schneider, MD, MPH https://health.uchicago.edu/admin/person/john-schneider

Despite successful efforts to reduce smoking rates among adults over the past several decades, African Americans experience the highest rates of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality of all racial/ethnic groups. Cigarette smoking contributes to approximately 80-90% of lung cancer deaths; however it does not fully elucidate racial disparities in lung cancer development. Although African Americans smoke at similar or lower rates than non-Hispanic whites, their rates of lung cancer incidence and mortality are significantly higher. Specifically, African Americans experience significant disparities in lung cancer across the continuum, including lower screening rates and more advanced stages of cancer upon diagnosis. Our research program aims to examine bio-behavioral and psychosocial mechanisms that contribute to disparities in lung cancer development among African Americans with a history of tobacco exposure. Specific research projects include 1) examining race differences in obesity and inflammation change post smoking cessation and 2) characterizing lung cancer screening rates and identifying barriers to screening among a large cohort of African American adults. Undergraduate researchers can help with this epidemiologic and behavioral research by participating in the following activities under faculty supervision:

a. Conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the lung cancer disparities and tobacco-related disease morbidity among African Americans

b. Extracting data from publically available data sources

c. Conducting statistical analyses of biological and behavioral correlates of inflammation change in ex-smokers

d. Conducting descriptive analyses on tobacco use (including electronic cigarette use) and lung cancer screening rates among African Americans with a history of tobacco use

REQUIREMENTS: Strong skills in manipulating datasets using statistical software (e.g. SAS, STATA, SPSS) is required. Prior coursework in statistics or epidemiology (introductory courses are acceptable) is required. Experience analyzing large datasets is preferred, but not necessary.

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago undergraduate students at all levels are eligible

FACULTY SPONSOR: Marcia Tan (https://pbhs.uchicago.edu/program/faculty/marcia-tan)

The prison-industrial complex in the United States is expansive. The US incarcerates more people than any other country, and has the highest per capita incarceration rate compared to all countries across the globe. In addition, the US operates the largest immigration detention system through a complex web of local, state, and federal actors who engage in interior and border enforcement activities. Increasingly, scholars have demonstrated the racial contours of these incarceration systems arguing that they disproportionately target and affect racial minorities in the US, operating as racialized systems of social control. An emerging body of work, for example, suggests that immigration enforcement activities, including raids, detentions, and deportations, may adversely affect the physical and mental health of both US and foreign-born Latinxs. So too, interactions with police and the judicial system (traffic stops, stop-and-frisk, incarcerations) can be detrimental to the health of racial minorities in the US, and Black Americans in particular. To date, however, links between immigration enforcement and the criminal justice system for the health of Blacks and Latinxs in the US have yet to be established. This project aims to fill this gap by aggregating area level measures of immigration detention and incarceration rates to nationally representative health data, and determine the joint effects of immigration and criminal-justice incarceration on health across racial/ethnic groups.

 

Undergraduate researchers under faculty will assist with this research project in the following ways:

1. Compile area-level immigration enforcement data from the Department of Homeland Security, incarceration data from the Department of Justice data, and racial/ethnic demographic rates from the ACS/Census

2. Link area-level incarceration rates to nationally representative health data with Black, Latinx, and non-Hispanic White groups (BRFSS, NHANES, PSID, etc) 

3. Conduct literature reviews on incarceration, criminal-justice system, policing and health and multilevel modeling approaches

4. Assist with statistical analysis to determine the relationship between area-level immigration detention rates and state/federal incarceration rates residence to health outcomes among Black, Latinx, and non-Hispanic White groups

REQUIREMENTS: Strong quantitative skills and familiarity with introductory statistics

Proficiency in STATA or other statistical software and experience analyzing large data sets (or willingness to learn)

Interest in the social determinants of health and/or health inequities

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

FACULTY SPONSOR: Aresha Martinez-Cardoso (https://health.uchicago.edu/faculty/aresha-martinez-cardoso-phd )

REQUIREMENTS: Experience manipulating datasets using a statistical package (e.g. R, Stata, SAS) is required. A solid command of a programming language like Python will be preferred. 

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago Undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

FACULTY SPONSOR: Kavi Bhalla 

(https://health.uchicago.edu/faculty/kavi-bhalla-phd)

REQUIREMENTS: Prior experience working with data in statistical packages Stata/SAS is preferred.

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY: UChicago undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

FACULTY SPONSOR:

Loren Saulsberry (http://health.bsd.uchicago.edu/PersonProfile/Loren-Saulsberry)