2024 Awardees

I am a driven neuroscience Ph.D. candidate with extensive research experience with active involvement in numerous research presentations and conferences. While at Yale, I have received several awards and fellowships—such as the SfN neuroscience scholars fellowship, reflecting excellence in academia and research. I am affiliated with organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the Molecular Psychiatry Association, showcasing a commitment to professional development and community involvement. Outside of the lab I enjoy lyra/aerial hoop, being a novice food reviewer, traveling, hiking, volunteering, and making people laugh.

Katherine (Katie) Hill is a PhD candidate in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases working under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Heimer. She is also a Public Health Workforce Development Fellow with the Office of Public Health Practice. Her research interests include substance use, harm reduction, xylazine, kratom, sexual health and behavior, and improving the health of incarcerated individuals. She is a Teaching Fellow for EPH537E (Frontiers in Public Health) and EPH509 (Fundamentals of Epidemiology).

Daniel is a third year MD-PhD student and first year PhD student in Professor Daniel Greif's lab in the Department of Genetics. He received his B.S. in Bioengineering from Temple University. Prior to Yale, Daniel worked with research groups at Virginia Commonwealth University/the McGuire Veteran's Affairs hospital and Temple University to study cardiovascular disease in clinical, translational, and basic contexts. He is interested in applying multi-disciplinary thinking and skillsets to understand coronary artery biology and disease.

Meet the Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology's (CPPEE) Esther Kang.

Reed Mszar, MPH, MS, is a PhD student in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. His research encompasses cardiovascular and clinical epidemiology, health outcomes and disparities research, and cardio-oncology. Before returning to Yale, he worked in the Division of Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) where he supported the development of research funding announcements and managed a diverse portfolio of funded studies. Reed also conducted research at Yale's Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) leading projects focused on patient-reported outcomes and shared decision-making, subclinical atherosclerosis imaging, atrial fibrillation ablation disparities, and financial hardship from medical bills.

Elisabeth Nelson is a second-year Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases PhD student. She is interested novel forms of vector control and in optimizing wolbachia release programs to help with scale-up and expansion into low-resource endemic settings. She is currently working on a Wolbachia release randomized control trial in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Alexandra Savinkina is a first year PhD student in the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. She is interested in using mathematical modeling to answer questions at the intersection of infectious disease epidemiology and national and global health policy, with a focus on health equity. Prior to coming to Yale, Alexandra was a data analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then worked in simulation modeling at Boston Medical Center's infectious disease department.

Olivia Turk is a PhD candidate in the Biomedical Engineering department. She is co-advised by Dr. James Hansen and Dr. Jiangbing Zhou. Her research is focused on discovering ways to redesign and deploy cell-penetrating SLE autoantibodies as novel bioengineering reagents for the therapy of malignant and non-malignant diseases, including a novel anti-DNA antibody-gold nanoparticle approach to enhance the efficacy and safety of laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) in the management of brain tumors and/or radiation necrosis.

Jo joined the Pitzer Lab as a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases in the Fall of 2021, where they use mathematical models to study the dynamics of infectious disease transmission and vaccination in low-resource settings, with a focus on typhoid fever. Prior to arriving at Yale, Jo worked on mathematical modeling and forecasting for influenza and COVID-19 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When Jo is not in class or building models, they enjoy cooking, climbing, and basketball.