Our Faculty

Forecasting Seasonal Outbreaks of Influenza

Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, talks about a method he developed to predict the timing and severity of seasonal flu outbreaks. The new method could help health officials and the public be better prepared for outbreaks.

Invisible Wounds: Combat-Related PTSD Reveals Gaps in Care for Active-Duty Military and Veterans

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, Chair of Epidemiology, discusses an Institute of Medicine report outlining gaps in care for active-duty military and veterans with PTSD.

Warfarin or Aspirin: What’s Best for Heart Failure Patients

John L. P. (Seamus) Thompson, PhD, discusses a large, international study comparing warfarin (Coumadin) and aspirin in heart failure patients. Dr. Thompson and colleague Shunichi Homma, MD, found no overall difference between the two treatments.

A Surprising Factor in Childhood Obesity: Air Pollution

Frederica Perera, PhD, Director of the Columbia Children’s Center for Environmental Health, and Andrew Rundle, DrPH, find prenatal exposure to chemicals in air pollution raises the risk for childhood obesity. The results of their study, they say, underline the importance of curbing air pollution.

Community Connection: the Columbia Children’s Center for Environmental Health

Frederica Perera, PhD, Director of the Columbia Children’s Center for Environmental Health, describes a long-term research study in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx that looks at how air pollution and other chemicals are raising children’s risk for asthma, obesity, and other health problems.

Community Connection: New York City Neighborhood Asthma & Allergy Study

Matthew Perzanowski, PhD, explains his research into the factors behind high rates of asthma in urban neighborhoods. Using sophisticated lab techniques, he finds connections between levels of environmental exposures and biological markers for asthma in children living there.

Taking a Breakthrough in HIV/AIDS One Step Further

Drs. Quarraisha and Salim Abdool Karim, who work with the Center for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), discuss a new breakthrough gel that has been effective in protecting women from HIV infection and plans to make the drug more effective.

The Needs & Opportunities of An Aging Society

Mailman School Dean Linda Fried, MD, MPH, delivered the prestigious University Lecture on a topic to which she has dedicated her career - the science of healthy aging. Her address reflected on an area of growing concern for public health officials and policy makers as people in the U.S. today, on average, live 30 to 40 years longer than 100 years ago.

Children, Humanitarian Crises and Effective Response

Neil Boothby, EdD, Director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health, explains the complex forces that impact children during crises. He touches on issues affecting child soldiers during war-time and displaced children after environmental disasters and how Forced Migration students are trained to address those realities.

Tending to a Neglected Group: Young Urban Men

Bruce Armstrong, Director of the Young Men's Health Clinic (YMHC), and Alwyn Cohall, Director of Harlem Health Promotion Center, are using a variety communications vehicles from multi-media to web-based formats to improve health communications targeting young urban men in Northern Manhattan.

Reducing Maternal Mortality's Grim Toll

Lynn Freedman, Director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, discusses the issues surrounding pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. A program piloted in a few African countries trains non-physician healthcare workers and may be key in bringing down mortality rates.

How Global Warming Impacts Health

Patrick Kinney, ScD, Director of the Program on Climate and Health, reviews the causes and
risks of global warming, the measures needed to address it and the health implications of climate change.

Meet a Modern Microbe Hunter

Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, and his team are dedicated to identifying emerging diseases that threaten human and animal populations, developing new vaccines for old scourges, and investigating the potential promise of personalized medicine as they seek new and cheaper ways to prevent disease.

Healthcare Reform: What It Means and How We Got Here

Michael Sparer, JD, PhD, professor and chair of Health Policy and Management, explains how one of the most contested pieces of legislation in recent decades made it through the political process to become law. Sparer describes the historical context and the political and practical obstacles.