As part of the University’s ongoing initiative to support computational approaches in modeling and simulation across the campus, GSPH has instituted a Computational and Systems Models in Public Health pilot grant program. The first five of these grants have been awarded to investigators who will use computational models to improve our understanding of complex public health issues. Each grant amount is $20,000 and covers the period from February 1, 2008, to January 31, 2009.
While the application stipulated that the principal investigator be a full-time faculty member with a primary appointment at GSPH, it also required that the PI identify co-investigator(s) from other schools on campus, fostering an interdisciplinary focus. Further, investigators new to the area were to pair with a more seasoned computational investigator. The five principal investigators of these pilot grants, the titles of their projects, and their co-investigators are:
Steven M. Albert, PhD, professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, “Using a Lottery-Choice Decision Game to Model Risk Aversion in Vaccine Behavior”
• Co-investigator: John Duffy, PhD, professor, Department of Economics, School of Arts and Sciences
Christopher Keane, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, “Commitment, Cooperation and Dilemma in Health Choices: Modeling Inter-temporal and Interpersonal Coordination”
• Co-investigator: Oliver Board, assistant professor, Department of Economics, School of Arts and Sciences
Michael Lin, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, “Complexity Science and Long-Term Care in Pennsylvania: An Ecological Analysis to Project the Organizational Landscape in 2020”
• Co-investigators: Taeyoung Park, assistant professor, Department of Statistics, School of Arts and Sciences; and Wesley Roher, PhD, MBA, assistant professor, Department of Health Policy and Management
Ravi K. Sharma, PhD, professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, “Exploration of the Environmental Influences on Obesity Using Cellular Automata”
• Co-investigator: Jeenshang Lin, ScD, associate professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering
Felicia Wu, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, “Modeling the Effect of Aflatoxin Regulations on Global Liver Cancer Risk and World Food Trade”
• Co-investigators: Bruce Y. Lee, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine; and Larry J. Shuman, PhD, professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and associate dean of academic affairs, School of Engineering
Each of these investigators presented a synopsis of his or her project at a kick-off symposium that took place on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Another symposium will be scheduled near the end of the grant period so that each investigator can report on the results of their projects.
3/20/2008