Our Faculty

Dean Linda P. Fried has announced the recipients of the 2010 Calderone Junior Faculty Research Prize. The awards to Mailman School junior faculty members offer funding for critical research with long-term implications throughout the School’s departments and disciplines.

The endowment was established by a very generous gift made by Frank A. Calderone, MD, in 1986. The prize honors Dr. Calderone and his distinguished career at the New York City Department of Health and the World Health Organization, where he was instrumental in shaping WHO policies and structure.

This year’s award winners were selected based on the scientific merit of the proposed research, the public health significance of the proposed project, and the likely impact of the award on the research career of the applicant.

The 2010 awardees are:

Yumiko Aratani, PhD
Department of Health Policy and Management & the National Center for Children in Poverty
Dr. Aratani was recognized for her study of “The Effect of Housing Subsidies on Young Children's Cognitive and Socio-emotional Development.” Dr. Aratani’s research has focused on the role of housing in stratification processes, parental assets, and children's well-being. She serves as the data analyst for a series of policy and impact analyses of mental health services for children, adolescents, and their families, and is also a principal investigator for a pilot project that examines the educational outcomes of runaway and homeless youth.

Qixuan Chen, PhD
Department of Biostatistics
Dr. Chen received the award for work on the “Variable Selection for Multiply-Imputed Data: Application to Dioxin Exposure Study.”  Dr. Chen has primary research interest in the analysis of data collected by complex survey designs, and in developing statistical methods applicable to environmental epidemiology. Her applied interests are broad, including mental health, environmental and occupational epidemiology, and the social sciences.

Ryan Demmer, PhD, MPH
Department of Epidemiology
Dr. Demmer was recognized for research on the “Investigation of Novel Bacterial Species as a Risk Factor for Insulin Resistance.” Dr. Demmer Ryan has a general research interest in chronic disease risk factor epidemiology and serves as a co-investigator on the Oral Infections and Vascular Disease Epidemiology Study (INVEST), an ongoing NIH funded cohort study investigating the role of oral infection in the initiation and progression of carotid artery atherosclerosis and subsequent development of clinical cardiovascular disease.