Robert Sherwin is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, and serves as Director of Clinical Research at Sinai-Grace Hospital. He has held leadership roles such as Assistant Residency Program Director and Co-Director of Resident Research, with a focus on critical care and sepsis management in emergency settings. Education: MD from Wayne State University (1998), BS in Biology from University of Michigan (1994) Specialty: Emergency Medicine, Critical Care, Sepsis, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy His research interests span emergency critical care , sepsis treatment protocols , hyperbaric medicine , and clinical research methodology . Recent work emphasizes biomarker utility , resuscitation practices , and urban healthcare challenges , including vaccination behavior studies and systemic gas embolism treatment. Recognized with multiple scientific awards , including the National Teaching Award (2009) College Teaching Award (2012) Fellowships in ACEP and AAEM Top Gun Awards for academic excellence in residency , he has also led course development for medical students and residents, such as the ED-Critical Care Elective and Intro to Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine honors course.
Professor Ashley Akbari serves as a Research Professor of Population Data Science at Swansea University's School of Medicine, where she has worked since 2008. She plays a significant role in major research programs using population-scale data through the SAIL Data Bank, leading multidisciplinary collaborations to develop research that informs policy across academia and government. Her research interests center on Population Data Science, Public Health, Epidemiology, and Health of Populations, with particular expertise in advancing team science and developing the next generation of data scientists. She promotes learning outcomes that translate into policy improvements through structured query language (SQL), project management, and agile methodologies. Her work frequently employs linked electronic health records to examine health disparities, chronic disease management, and pandemic impacts across Welsh populations. Ashley directs the Population Data Science Internship Programme, providing undergraduate and postgraduate students with funded summer placements in research teams. Her scholarly output demonstrates consistent focus on health inequalities, multimorbidity patterns, and data linkage methodology, with numerous high-impact publications in journals including Nature Communications, The Lancet, and BMJ Open. She actively promotes team science and collaborates with multidisciplinary groups to develop research that improves services and people's lives. Her work spans cardiovascular health, mental-physical health interactions, pandemic response evaluation, and methodological innovations in population health data science.
Joseph Price is a Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he directs the Record Linking Lab. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Fellow at the Wheatley Institute. His research integrates family history data with machine learning to create large linked datasets, focusing on intergenerational mobility, labor economics, and family structure analysis. PhD in Economics from Cornell University (2007) BA in Economics from Brigham Young University (2003) Price's work spans economic history, demographic studies, and educational policy, with over 50 publications in top journals like the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Journal of Labor Economics . He mentors over 60 undergraduate research assistants and 400 BYU Pathway students in Africa. His key projects include the Census Tree—linking 700 million historical U.S. census records— and studies on marriage premiums, NBA referee bias, and farm succession. Recent research trends include multigenerational mobility analysis (2025), lifespan transmission studies (2023), and machine learning applications in historical record linking (2019). His work often addresses socioeconomic disparities, policy impacts, and structural changes over time. NBER Faculty Research Fellow Wheatley Institute Fellow Price advises numerous mentored research projects and contributes to policy discussions through grants and datasets. His lab develops methods for analyzing historical socioeconomic mobility and family dynamics. Personal details include being a father of seven children (two at BYU, one in Uruguay missionary service).
Awais Ashfaq is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Halmstad University's School of Information Technology, focusing on healthcare data analytics and AI applications in clinical decision-making. His work bridges the gap between advanced machine learning techniques and practical healthcare solutions, with particular emphasis on emergency department diagnostics and cardiovascular disease analysis. Dr. Ashfaq's research interests center around healthcare data analysis, applying statistics, traditional machine learning, deep learning, and language models to extract insights for informed clinical and management decisions. His work demonstrates strong expertise in interpretable AI models for medical diagnostics, particularly in emergency settings for conditions like dyspnea. He has made significant contributions to the development of evidence-based diagnostic tools that integrate seamlessly with clinical workflows. His publication record shows a consistent focus on leveraging complete healthcare system data to address real clinical challenges. The research trends indicate increasing sophistication in model interpretability while maintaining high diagnostic accuracy. His work spans multiple healthcare domains including emergency medicine, cardiology, and pediatric care, demonstrating the versatility of his methodological approaches. Dr. Ashfaq collaborates extensively with physicians across all care levels to ensure his research translates effectively to clinical practice and improves patient outcomes. His work on regional healthcare information platforms demonstrates commitment to building infrastructure that supports ongoing medical research and quality improvement initiatives.
Alison El Ayadi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. She holds a ScD in Social Epidemiology from Harvard University and an MPH in Reproductive Health Monitoring & Evaluation from Tulane University. Her research focuses on maternal mortality determinants , gender inequalities in women's health , and quality improvement in lower-resource settings . She leads clinical trials on mHealth interventions for postnatal care and non-surgical management of obstetric fistula in India and Ghana. Scientific awards include the 2019 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training and a 2018 Certificate in Implementation Science at UCSF. She mentors faculty, UCSF students, and research staff and leads projects in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia , including studies on fistula recurrence , contraceptive adoption , and stigma reduction .
Dr. Yue Leng is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine , and leads the Moon (Sleep) Lab for Artificial Intelligence Technology . Her work bridges epidemiology and neurodegenerative disease research through innovative digital biomarker development and machine learning applications. PhD in Epidemiology from University of Cambridge Postdoctoral training in sleep and neurodegeneration at UCSF Research Interests : Investigating sleep-cognition relationships in aging populations Developing behavioral sleep interventions for mild cognitive impairment Exploring circadian rhythm disruption as early dementia markers Creating wearable-based sleep biomarkers through AI/ML Studying ethnic and sex disparities in sleep disorders Examining genetic-sleep interactions in Alzheimer's pathogenesis Key Contributions : Developed LifeSPAN cohort for life-course sleep-neurodegeneration analysis Led STAI SHARP project on statistics/AI in sleep health Pioneered WeSleep wearable technology research Scientific Awards : NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) Global Brain Health Institute Atlantic Fellow Cambridge International Scholarship China Medical Board Next Generation Fellowship Research Funding : NIH R01AG083836 (2024-2029): Multidimensional sleep patterns and Alzheimer's NIH R21AG085495 (2023-2025): Digital biomarker development NIH R00AG056598 (2017-2024): Sleep and cognitive decline
Tyler VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves as Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. His educational background includes: Ph.D. (Biostatistics) 2006, Harvard University A.M. (Biostatistics) 2005, Harvard University M.A. (Mathematics) 2005, University of Oxford M.A. (Finance and Applied Economics) 2002, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania B.A. (Philosophy and Theology) 2000, University of Oxford B.A. (Mathematics) 2000, University of Oxford VanderWeele's research spans two interconnected domains: methodological work focused on distinguishing between association and causation in biomedical and social sciences, and psychosocial measurement theory; and empirical research encompassing psychiatric and social epidemiology, the science of happiness and flourishing, and the study of religion and health. His work integrates rigorous statistical methodology with substantive questions about human well-being across diverse populations and cultural contexts worldwide. His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on cross-national analysis of human flourishing across 22 countries through the Global Flourishing Study. This research examines demographic variations and childhood predictors of numerous aspects of well-being including sense of mastery, physical pain, optimism, social trust, volunteering behavior, and religious beliefs. His methodological contributions include sensitivity analysis tools like E-values for unmeasured confounding, and frameworks for mediation and interaction analysis. Among his notable scientific recognitions is the 2017 Presidents' Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS), one of the highest honors in the field of statistics. VanderWeele has secured multiple NIH research grants as Principal Investigator, including R01CA222147 on mediation and interaction methods, R01AI104459 on longitudinal causal mediation analysis in HIV, and R01ES017876 on sufficient cause interactions. He has published over 500 peer-reviewed papers and authored influential books including Explanation in Causal Inference (2015), Modern Epidemiology (2021), Measuring Well-Being (2021), Handbook of Religion and Health (2023), and A Theology of Health (2024). He founded the journal Epidemiologic Methods with Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen to advance methodological research in epidemiology. His research group develops various tools and tutorials for sensitivity analysis, mediation analysis, and interaction analysis, making advanced statistical methods accessible to researchers worldwide.
Bengt-Gunnar Jonsson is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Mid Sweden University's School of Natural Science, Design and Sustainable Development. With over 25 years of research experience, he specializes in boreal forest ecology, deadwood dynamics, and biodiversity conservation. His work focuses on wood-inhabiting fungi , lichen communities , and forest fragmentation effects , particularly in northern Sweden's high conservation value forests . Jonsson has been pivotal in developing green infrastructure models and climate-adaptive forestry strategies . Key research themes: forest conservation, fungal ecology, climate change mitigation, deadwood management Research tools: presence-absence sampling, Bayesian modeling, long-term ecological monitoring Policy contributions: EU Biodiversity Strategy evaluations, IPBES initiatives His recent publications (2025-2020) demonstrate sustained expertise in forest carbon dynamics , saproxylic community analysis , and landscape-scale conservation . Jonsson frequently collaborates with international researchers on temperate and boreal forest biodiversity , with notable work on functional ecology and ecosystem service trade-offs . Current projects include 'Climate - collaborative learning initiative' and 'Functional green infrastructure in boreal forests' . Scientific contributions span multiple systematic reviews in environmental management, including Forest Ecology and Management and Environmental Research Letters . He has co-authored Cambridge University Press 's Biodiversity in Dead Wood and contributed to IPBES policy frameworks. Jonsson's research integrates empirical forest monitoring with theoretical ecological modeling , particularly in wood decomposition processes and fungal community dynamics .
Daisy Fancourt is Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology and Head of the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at University College London. She directs the WHO Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health and previously led the UKRI MARCH Mental Health Research Network. Her research investigates how social connections and behaviors impact health, focusing on social assets (arts, culture, community engagement) and deficits (loneliness, isolation). Fancourt holds a PhD in Psychoneuroimmunology from UCL and completed postdoctoral work at Imperial College London. She has secured over £30 million in research funding, including awards from Wellcome Trust, British Academy, and ESRC. During COVID-19, she led the nationally influential Covid-19 Social Study and global COVID-Minds Network. Research Focus: Her work spans four programs: 1) Clinical trials of social/cultural interventions, 2) Epidemiological analysis of population health datasets, 3) Behavioral science of social engagement patterns, and 4) Complexity science examining mechanisms linking social factors to biological/psychological health outcomes. Awards & Honors: Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2023-2024) Rising Star of Science Award (#7 UK, 2024) Philip Leverhulme Prize (2018-2021) Fellow of Royal Society for Public Health & Royal Society of Arts BBC New Generation Thinker Leadership: Directs WHO Collaborating Centre advising global arts/health policy. Served on Lancet COVID-19 Commission and UK government pandemic task forces. Supervises doctoral candidates in social epidemiology and psychobiology.
Sally Haskell, MD is a Professor at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of General Internal Medicine. She serves as the Deputy Chief Consultant for Clinical Operations and National Director of Comprehensive Women's Health for the Office of Women's Health Services at the Veterans Health Administration. Based in West Haven, CT, Dr. Haskell is a General Internist with a special focus on Women's Health and has published extensively on women Veterans' health and healthcare. MD, Emory University (1985) Board Certified in Internal Medicine (1988) Dr. Haskell's research focuses on critical areas of women's health within the veteran population. Her work spans Chronic Pain , Combat Disorders , Depression , Menopause , Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders , and specialized aspects of Veterans Health and Women's Health . She has made significant contributions to understanding gender differences in healthcare utilization, intimate partner violence among veterans, and the unique healthcare needs of women transitioning from military to VA care. Analysis of Dr. Haskell's recent publications reveals a strong focus on veteran healthcare disparities, particularly for women veterans. Her research spans sleep disorders, intimate partner violence, cardiovascular disease risk, military sexual trauma, and the transition from military to civilian healthcare systems. The work demonstrates a consistent pattern of addressing gender-specific health issues within the veteran population through rigorous epidemiological and implementation science approaches. As Director of the VA Connecticut Advanced Fellowship in Women's Health, Dr. Haskell leads an important training program focused on developing expertise in women's health within the Veterans Affairs system. Her leadership extends to national initiatives through her role as National Director of Comprehensive Women's Health at the Veterans Health Administration.
Paula Diehr is a Professor of Biostatistics and Health Services at the University of Washington's School of Public Health and Community Medicine. With a distinguished career spanning several decades, Dr. Diehr has established herself as a leading expert in biostatistics and health services research. Dr. Diehr's research focuses on critical methodological issues in public health, including small area statistics, health care utilization analysis, and statistical methods for population health research. Her work on the Diehr Rule for diagnosing pneumonia represents an important clinical decision tool, while her more recent work on the Healthy Life Calculator has contributed significantly to aging and longevity research. Her publications demonstrate consistent contributions to methodological advancements in public health research, particularly in statistical approaches for analyzing health care data and evaluating community-based interventions. Dr. Diehr has published extensively in top public health journals including Annual Review of Public Health, American Journal of Public Health, and Medical Care. UCLA Alumni Hall of Fame recipient Dr. Diehr has been instrumental in developing statistical methodologies that address real-world challenges in health services research, with particular emphasis on the proper application of statistical assumptions in large public health datasets and innovative approaches to analyzing health care utilization patterns. Her work bridges theoretical statistical methods with practical public health applications.
Prof. Dr. Slavica Vasiljević Ilic is a full professor at the Faculty of Philology, Department of Serbian Studies, University of Banja Luka. Her academic career spans multiple institutions, including her participation in international conference papers across Europe. Current faculty member at University of Banja Luka ORCID: 0000-0002-3694-9651 Teaching: Serbian medieval literature, History of Serbian culture Research interests focus on Serbian medieval literature and its cultural context, with particular emphasis on: Medieval narrative structures Cultural identity formation Religious and historical representations in texts Interethnic relations in medieval literature Manuscript analysis and paleography Recent publications analyze various aspects of Serbian medieval literature including biblical female characters, Slavic peoples' representation, and diplomatic texts. She actively contributes to international conferences and academic collaborations. Awarded academic title full professor in 2017, she contributes to editorial work and critical editions, with a strong focus on Serbian literary heritage and its contemporary relevance.
Lisa M Bodnar is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. She holds a PhD in Nutrition with an Epidemiology minor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MPH in Nutrition, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Reproductive Biology at Magee-Womens Research Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her research has significantly contributed to pregnancy weight gain guidelines and maternal nutrition science. 1998 | BSPH Summa Cum Laude with Highest Honors, Nutrition | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1998 | Dietetic Internship | University of North Carolina Hospitals 1999 | MPH, Nutrition | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2002 | PhD, Nutrition; Epidemiology Minor | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2004 | Postdoctoral Fellowship, Reproductive Biology | Magee-Womens Research Institute and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Dr. Bodnar's research focuses on maternal and child health, particularly in the areas of pregnancy weight gain, nutritional epidemiology, obesity during pregnancy, and vitamin D status. Her work has informed national guidelines on gestational weight gain, and she was a member of the 2009 Institute of Medicine Committee to Reexamine Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines. She has pioneered innovative methodological approaches to study optimal gestational weight gain ranges and has documented the poor nutritional status of women before, during, and after pregnancy. Analysis of Dr. Bodnar's recent publications reveals a strong focus on quantitative methods in epidemiology, including machine learning applications to assess maternal health outcomes. Her work spans nutritional epidemiology, obstetric complications, and health disparities, with particular attention to how prepregnancy obesity affects maternal and child health outcomes. Recent studies examine severe maternal morbidity, preeclampsia risk factors, and dietary patterns in pregnancy. Member of the 2009 Institute of Medicine Committee to Reexamine Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines Dr. Bodnar has secured significant research funding to investigate pregnancy weight gain guidelines, nutritional patterns during pregnancy, and their impacts on maternal and child health outcomes. Her work has filled major knowledge gaps identified by the Institute of Medicine and has provided scientific leadership for refining gestational weight gain guidelines. She teaches grant writing (EPIDEM 2921) and has mentored numerous researchers in the field of maternal and child health epidemiology. Her research has been conducted through the Epidemiology and Demography Center at the University of Pittsburgh, collaborating with Magee-Womens Research Institute and other national institutions. Dr. Bodnar's work often involves large cohort studies and innovative statistical methodologies to address complex questions in perinatal epidemiology.
Dr. Kees de Hoogh is an Assistant Professor and Researcher at Utrecht University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Population Health Sciences, and the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS). He holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel. His research focuses on spatial modeling and exposure assessment for environmental health studies, with specialization in exposome research and air pollution analysis. Primary research interests include: Advanced spatio-temporal modeling techniques using satellite data Exposome studies linking environmental exposures to health outcomes Air pollution exposure assessment methodologies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in public health His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on air pollution modeling, exposure assessment methods, and environmental health impacts across European populations. Research consistently explores the relationships between environmental factors (air quality, green space, temperature) and health outcomes including metabolic disorders, respiratory diseases, dementia, and stroke. Dr. de Hoogh leads significant research initiatives: Co-Principal Investigator of EXPANSE (European project) Co-PI of NWO Gravitation programme Exposome-NL Co-PI of Utrecht Exposome Hub Principal Investigator of MOBI-AIR studies Contributor to BioSHARE, ESCAPE, and ELAPSE projects He works within the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) and collaborates through the Utrecht Exposome Hub, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health challenges.
Edward Glasscock is a Professor and C. Vincent Prothro Distinguished Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he also serves as Director of Graduate Studies. His research focuses on the genetic and physiological mechanisms of epilepsy and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Dr. Glasscock earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and completed postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine. Leading the Cardiorespiratory Neurogenetics Laboratory , his work investigates epilepsy and SUDEP through genetic mouse models. His team employs in vivo , ex vivo , and in vitro electrophysiological techniques alongside pharmacology, histology, and molecular analyses. Key research areas include: Neurogenetics of Kv1.1 channelopathies Sex-specific differences in SUDEP susceptibility Cardiorespiratory biomarkers of seizure-related mortality Brain-heart-lung interactions during epileptic events Analysis of Dr. Glasscock's recent publications reveals a concentrated focus on Kv1.1 channel dysfunction, SUDEP biomarker development, and translational mouse models bridging neuroscience and cardiology. His work demonstrates how ion channel mutations disrupt cardiorespiratory physiology during seizures, with significant implications for predicting and preventing epilepsy-related mortality. Dr. Glasscock mentors a multidisciplinary research team, with notable achievements including: PhD student Kelsey Paulhus-Halvorson's successful dissertation defense (April 2024) Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Man Si receiving the 2025 Cranefield Postdoctoral Fellow Award Multiple undergraduate award winners at SMU Research & Innovation Week In 2023, his lab secured a 5-year NIH R01 grant to identify brain-heart-lung dysfunction patterns as SUDEP biomarkers. The Cardiorespiratory Neurogenetics Laboratory operates within SMU's research infrastructure, featuring specialized facilities for electrophysiology and behavioral analysis while maintaining active collaborations with clinical researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute.
