Alumni

Zully Arias is a current undergraduate at Yale College studying Statistics & Data Science. She has an interest in environmental justice and how to best utilize data visualization to demonstrate the effects of climate change to the general public.

Dieyi Chen is a second-year MPH student in the Department of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health. She is interested in the health effects of air pollution and climate change. Her current project focuses on using causal inference methods to understand the long-term effects of ambient air pollution.

Evan is a visiting doctoral student in the Climate Change and Health Concentration faculty at the Yale School of Public Health. Originally he pursues a PhD in “Climate Change Adaptation and Future Health Impacts” at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research as part of the University of Bern, Switzerland. Thus far, Evan`s work has aimed to understand the long term temperature-mortality trends and to identify drivers of temperature-related vulnerability factors. At Yale, Evan hopes to acquire the skillset to provide projections on climate change impacts under various Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and adaptation measures, by applying the wealth of epidemiological knowledge available at Yale University. Ultimately, the aim of the PhD is to bridge the gap between epidemiology, public health and climate sciences.

Nina Domingo earned her PhD degree in Bioproducts & Biosystems Science, Engineering, and Management at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests are at the intersection of environmental change, food systems, and environmental justice. Outside research, she is involved with several grassroots organizations to advocate for local social and environmental justice.

Qi Gao is a current PhD student at Nanjing University with the research interest in climate change, air pollution and mental health. Her recent work focuses on the impact of air pollution on cognitive function.

Emily Goddard is a data analyst at the YPCCC. Her research interest is at the intersection of environmental sustainability and human health, with particular focus on mental health and the co-benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation. She wrote her master’s thesis on the relationship between wildfire smoke-specific fine particulate matter and symptoms of anxiety and depression, for which she was awarded the Dean’s Prize for Outstanding MPH Thesis. She received her MPH from the Yale School of Public Health in 2023, where she concentrated on Climate Change and Health, and her BA from Vassar College in 2015.

Riena is an MPH candidate in the Environmental Health Sciences department. Her academic interests include climate change, air pollution, clean energy, and building electrification. She is currently studying the impacts of wildfire smoke on human health, and plans to use her MPH to drive health benefits through clean energy and equitable electrification. Riena graduated in 2020 from Bowdoin College, where she studied Biology and Government & Legal Studies.

MPH graduate in 2021, now PhD student at Emory University

Dr. Riyang Liu received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Nanjing University in China in 2024. His research focuses on modeling and assessing the population exposure to air pollutants and climate stressors with multidisciplinary approaches. Riyang has a background in environmental risk assessment and air pollution modeling.

Yiqun Ma is a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Yale School of Public Health. She is interested in the intersection of climate change, air pollution, and human health, such as heat-related cause-specific mortality and the effects of air pollution on mental health. She also hopes to learn more about the exposure assessment of air pollution and air temperature. Yiqun holds a Bachelor of Management Sciences from Zhejiang University, China.

Mitchell is a first year MPH student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. He is interested in the intersection of climate change and human health, specifically the individual, structural and environmental determinants of climate vulnerability among disadvantaged populations. Mitchell studied Healthcare Management at the University of Connecticut and received a Bachelor of Science in Business degree in May of 2021. He also participated in YSPH’s Summer Research Experience in Environmental Health (SREEH) program in 2020, conducting a heat vulnerability assessment for the State of Connecticut.

Fiona O’Brien is a recent graduate of Yale College, where she studied environmental engineering and global health studies. She currently works on a project to measure and map climate health vulnerability in New York. Fiona is passionate about using engineering to promote equity and justice, cultivate a thoughtful relationship with the natural world, and build a more sustainable future. Her interests include urban environmental health, geospatial analysis, and environmental justice.

Julia is a third-year MEM, MPH student at the Yale School of the Environment and in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. She is interested in the nexus of climate change mitigation policies and community health. Julia is now exploring the health and air quality co-benefits of carbon pricing schemes. Her prior experience includes global climate policy work at an environmental NGO and environmental auditing on carbon pricing and just transition with the Canadian federal government.

Dr. Xuguo Zhang is currently a Visiting Associate in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. He holds a BSc and an MS degree in Applied Mathematics from Xi’an Jiaotong University and University College London, respectively. In August 2020, he received his PhD in Air Quality Modeling and Data Assimilation from a cross-disciplinary program at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), where he was supervised by Chair Prof. Jimmy Fung. Following his PhD, he became a Hong Kong Research Talent Hub (RTH) Postdoc Fellow and later a Research Associate, still working with Prof. Fung's air quality modeling group in the Department of Mathematics at HKUST. Dr. Zhang's research interests include multi-scale air quality modeling, health exposure science, data analysis and assimilation, dynamic emission projection and mitigation, and the interactions between climate change, air quality, and health exposure.