While writing her undergraduate thesis in environmental science and engineering, Lingzhi Chu discovered that she really liked research. As a 2nd year of the doctoral program in Environmental Health Sciences, she is particularly interested in developing a holistic approach toward how the environment impacts our lives. “It is not enough to just focus on air, water or the soil,” says Lingzhi, so she likes the public health approach.
Last semester, she completed a research rotation for which she did a meta-analysis on breast cancer and alcohol. Meta-analysis is different from traditional epidemiological studies, she says, because it synthesizes data from existing evidence. The paper, “Vibration of effects in epidemiologic studies of alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk,” for which she is the lead author, was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
The approach, while new to her, is one she values and will be incorporating into her dissertation research, which will focus on climate change and health. Specifically, she plans to study data from the state of New York on temperature, humidity, air pollution and renal disease risk.
One of Lingzhi’s favorite things about studying at the Yale School of Public Health has been the freedom and encouragement to explore and bring her own ideas and new techniques into her research.