BSCD Summer Public Health Research Fellowship - 2025

 BSCD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship in Public Health Research

The University of Chicago Department of Public Health Sciences (PHS) seeks to engage college students in mentored research projects in public health. PHS is a multidisciplinary department in the Biological Sciences Division that includes core public health fields including biostatistics, epidemiology, health economics, health services research, health behavior, and global health. The department mission is to improve the health of human populations and reduce disparities by expanding knowledge of factors that affect health, by advancing diverse methods for carrying out such research, and by training the next generation of innovative public health scholars and professionals. PHS faculty design and implement observational and experimental studies in both community and clinical settings, and develop and implement complex analytic methods to understand the determinants of health, the efficacy of interventions, and the structure and financing of health care at the population level.

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, quantitative and qualitative methods to improve understanding of complex problems in population health and develop new solutions.

The Fellowship covers a $5500 stipend, plus the $350 Student Life fee for the summer research period. 

Duties and Responsibilities 

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. 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

Requirements vary based on the project. Please see the project descriptions. 

Class Level Eligibility 

Eligibility varies based on the project. Please see the project descriptions. 

Required Materials

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

Please submit all materials as PDF files. 

Expiration Date

April 7, 2025

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-2025/

Interviews

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by a faculty panel.

Topic 1: Breast Cancer Health Disparity

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. We have 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. We have conducted surveys to inquiry quality of life among breast cancer patients during Covid-19 pandemic and will conduct another yearly survey on quality of life after the peak of another contagious variant. 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)

Topic 2: Social Vulnerability and Health Disparities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines social vulnerability as the demographic and socioeconomic factors (such as poverty, lack of access to transportation, and crowded housing) that adversely affect communities. Current projects evaluating health data (survey, large administrative databases (i.e., clinical insurance claims), electronic health records, etc.) examine the role of these social determinants of health (SDoH) that contribute to social vulnerability in shaping health outcomes, and the health disparities observed across diverse populations. In the era of precision medicine, clinical and biological factors are only part of what contributes to an individual’s health. These projects evaluate the relationship between social vulnerability and different health outcomes at a national, state, and local level.

            Risk assessment for social vulnerability can be incorporated into medical decision-making at various levels to guide clinical care as well as into interventions of public health practice and policy. Its applications range from being displayed in electronic medical records so physicians can determine how to direct individualized care to mapping SVM scores across the city to see which neighborhoods are most at risk for experiencing health disparities during the next pandemic or economic recession. 

Undergraduate researchers under faculty supervision can help with this research by participating in the following ways:

• Conducting systematic reviews of the literature
• Collecting and maintaining project databases for a variety of health care outcomes across chronic disease areas (e.g., cancer)
• Data analysis examining the role of area-based social vulnerability in health disparities studies

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

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

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

Topic 3:  Medical care costs and health insurance

The United States spends more per capita than any other country in the world on health care.  That high spending is often shifted to individuals.  Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy and many low- to middle-income Americans say they forego medical care because of costs. Researchers in Public Health Sciences have ongoing projects related to health care spending including estimating the effects of high patient costs on health care access, describing disparities in access to care due to cost, and understanding how costs impact individuals and health systems. 

Undergraduate researchers can help with this research by participating in the following activities under faculty supervision: 

• Analyzing and interpreting medical spending data, especially medical claims datasets, to look for patterns by insurance type and patient costs
• Extracting information from public data sources to describe differences across income in financial burden of health care costs or health impact of high costs
• Conducting systematic reviews of literature on insurance plan structures and their effect on patient costs
• Collecting primary data on clinic access for special populations or on billing practices at hospitals and clinics.

REQUIREMENTS: Basic understanding of the U.S. health care system  

CLASS LEVEL ELIGIBILITY Undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

FACULTY SPONSOR: Betsy Cliff https://biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/faculty/betsy-cliff-phd

Topic 4:  Role of Genetics in How Environment Affects Cancer Risk

Risk for cancer and other complex diseases is influenced by inherited genetic risk factors as well as lifestyle and environmental exposures. Ongoing research in the Department of Public Health Sciences is focused on understanding how genetic variation influences or alters the effects of environmental exposures and biomarkers on human health and biology. Areas of ongoing research include (1) telomere length as a biomarker of aging and cancer risk, (2) methods for assessing causal relationships among risk factors, biomarkers, and disease, (3) genome-wide association studies, and (4) susceptibility to the effects of environmental exposure to arsenic, a known carcinogen. Long term goals are to reveal biological mechanisms of disease susceptibility, identify potential targets for pharmacological intervention, and provide strategies for identifying high-risk individuals. Undergraduate students having taken statistical coursework can participate in conducting statistical analyses of genetic and environmental data to understand the determinants of health outcomes in the context of large epidemiological datasets.

REQUIREMENTS: Prior coursework in statistics or epidemiology and some experience using statistical software are required. Prior coursework in genetics is preferred, but not essential.

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

FACULTY SPONSOR: Brandon Pierce

(http://health.bsd.uchicago.edu/PersonProfile/Brandon-Pierce)

Topic 5: Cancer Prevention to Eliminate Disparities

Preventing and eliminating cancer disparities is key to achieving optimal and equitable health for all populations.  The availability of screening tests to detect breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancer early, the HPV vaccine to prevent HPV-related cancers, and programs to help patients stop smoking are great public health accomplishments; however, there are segments of the population that still do not receive the full benefits of these behaviors.  All of these health behaviors require individuals to interact with health care provider teams and systems. Effective interventions must take into account the local community and policy context and must be easy to implement and sustain. Further, as new technologies (e.g., home-based HPV self-sampling) prove effective and are incorporated into clinical guidelines, the need for appropriate and effective communications to transfer knowledge from “bench to bedside” will be even greater in order to maximize the potential of these new technologies in reducing cancer morbidity and mortality. Dr. Tiro leads the Center to Eliminate Cancer Inequity in the U Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center.  She has several projects and collaborations to understand multilevel determinants of these cancer prevention behaviors and design and evaluate interventions promoting them in Chicagoland populations. Undergraduate researchers can help with this research by participating in the following types of activities under faculty supervision:

• Conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the effectiveness of interventions promoting various cancer prevention behaviors
• Developing surveys and semi-structured interview guides and fielding these data collection tools in local communities to understand factors influencing behavioral adoption
• Analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to understand delivery of HPV self-collection or colorectal cancer screening by federally qualified health centers

REQUIREMENTS: Experience developing data collection tools in Redcap and manipulating datasets using a statistical package (e.g. R, Stata, SAS, NVivo) is required. 

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

FACULTY SPONSOR: Jasmin Tiro (https://newfaculty.uchicago.edu/staff-directory/jasmin-tiro/)

Topic 6: Improving the safety of walking and bicycling in and around Hyde Park

Promoting active transport (including walking and bicycling) is important for population health and wellbeing. The resulting increases in physical activity improve cardiovascular health, which is a leading health concern in the US and globally, and the reductions in motor vehicles and their associated emissions are an important way to reduce the climate impacts of the transportation sector. This project focuses on understanding how to improve conditions for walking and bicycling on the University of Chicago's campus, Hyde Park, and the surrounding communities. The project has a central focus on interventions that will make walking and bicycling safer. Undergraduate researchers can help with this research by participating in the following types of activities under faculty supervision:

• Help conduct interviews and surveys of students, faculty, and staff at the University and in the surrounding communities to identify key safety concerns
• Help collect and analyze data on traffic speeds and safety violations
• Help arrange and run meetings with various stakeholders

REQUIREMENTS: Interest in working on urban transportation issues

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

FACULTY SPONSOR: Kavi Bhalla (https://health.uchicago.edu/faculty/kavi-bhalla-phd)

Topic 7: The effects of medication diversion in the treatment of opioid use disorder

Opioid use disorder is a chronic, relapsing condition associated with a range of negative health and social outcomes. Effective pharmacological treatments for opioid use disorder exist, but multiple barriers prevent the majority of individuals from accessing and remaining in treatment. The most effective medications for opioid use disorder are controlled substances. This limits patients' access to take-home doses and often requires daily visits to clinics for directly observed medication intake.

One reason for restricting take-home dosing is the risk of medication diversion, including the personal use of more than the prescribed dose or sharing medication with others. Diversion is generally viewed as a negative phenomenon that should be minimized. This project aims to explore a broader range of effects of medication diversion among people with opioid use disorder, including potential harm reduction benefits for the treated individual and potential spillover effects on members of their social network.

Undergraduate researchers can assist with this project by participating in the following activities under faculty supervision:

• Conduct a literature review on the evaluation of the positive and negative effects of medication diversion among people with opioid use disorder, drawing from original clinical and epidemiologic studies.

• Help identify potential publicly available or administrative data sources, including data from Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and the Drug Enforcement Administration, that may provide information on diversion.

• Conduct a literature review on modeling studies that explore the spillover effects of substance use and treatments.

Requirements: Interest in substance use epidemiology and drug control policies.

Class level eligibility: Undergraduate students at all levels are eligible.

Faculty sponsor: Olga Morozova (https://pbhs.uchicago.edu/faculty/olga-morozova-phd)