NIH has just announced that they’ve selected CSDE Affiliate Jane Simoni as the next Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Simoni will be leading efforts to advance and coordinate behavioral and social sciences research across all NIH institutes and centers. 

The Washington State Academy of Sciences just announced this year’s newly elected members. CSDE Affiliates Betty Bekemeier, Sara Curran, and David Swanson were just elected members of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. UW News provides a summary of the eight UW faculty elected to WSAS, including the three CSDE affiliates.

CSDE’s Executive Committee is pleased to introduce four of our new UW Faculty Affiliates:

• Liane Sheppard – Rohm & Haas Endowed Professor, Biostatistics and Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. Liane is principal investigator of a NIH-funded training grant called Biostatistics, Epidemiologic & Bioinformatics Training in Environmental Health, and she oversees the SURE-EH training program, a project to promote diversity in the environmental health sciences. She is also co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution study and of a Health Effects Institute study to better understand the role of exposure assessment design and modeling in inference about air pollution health effects.

CSDE Affiliates Nathalie Williams and Visiting Fulbright Scholar Sarfraz Khan will be hosting a workshop focused on Migration & Health: Perspectives from South Asia on October 12-13, 2023 on the UW campus (co-sponsored by CSDE and the South Asia Center). Send your proposed paper for the workshop by July 31, 2023 to southasiamig@uw.edu. Accepted papers and authors will be informed by August 16, 2023.

CSDE Affiliate Vedavati Patwardhan has released new research in Health Economics entitled “The Impact of the Mamata Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Child Nutrition in Odisha, India”. Using data from the National Family Health Survey, she evaluates the impact of the program on child nutrition and finds heterogeneities in the positive effects by wealth. Fantastic work, Dr. Patwardhan!

CSDE Affiliate Nicole Errett, along with Co-authors, has published a new article in Environmental Health Perspectives entitled “Health Research in the Wake of Disasters: Challenges and Opportunities for Sensor Science”. Dr. Errett and colleagues explore the preparedness and capacity of The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in order to bridge the gap on research exploring the nature and effects of disasters and their effects on human health.

CSDE Affiliate Yuan Hsaio, and Co-Authors, have released a new article entitled “Politics Matters for Individual Attitudes Toward Vaccine Donation: Cross-National Evidence from the United States and Taiwan” in Globalization and Health.

This is a cross-national project that discusses commonalities and differences between Taiwanese and US citizens. They show that apart from humanitarian and capability considerations, political factors also significantly impact individuals’ decisions regarding vaccine donations.

CSDE is pleased to welcome Mike Renz as the new Program Coordinator! He was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley region of Southern California where he attended Citrus Community College, majoring in Fine Arts. He also completed a certification course with The Institute of Children’s Literature, chasing his youthful dream of becoming a young adult author. At CSDE, Mike assists with purchasing, budget reconciliation, coordinating travel, event planning, website management, among a myriad of other hats.

CSDE is hiring an administrator and would love your recommendations for qualified individuals. CSDE is a supportive, equity-oriented, and progressive unit that supports social science and health researchers across the entire UW campus. The center was just renewed with funding from NIH and from across the UW campus and is in good standing financially. We include a productive team of research scientists, staff, and faculty.

The Story Exchange, an award-winning nonprofit media organization dedicated to elevating women’s voices, is seeking submissions for its 3rd annual Women In Science Incentive Prize.

The cash prize will support U.S.-based women working to find innovative, science-based solutions as climate change disrupts and depletes our natural resources. This year, the focus is on women leading efforts in soil. (Previous prizes focused on women working in water and in air.) A total of 5 recipients will be awarded $5,000 each and potential media coverage via The Story Exchange,

This award provides support for collaborative exploratory work that opens new ground for comprehensively assessing or mitigating the impacts of climate change on human health. This program will support both individual scientists and multi-investigator teams. Early career faculty and postdoctoral fellows nearing their transition to independence are especially encouraged to apply, whether individually or within teams.

To begin in The Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s 55th year, this new recognition award will formally acknowledge another community member whose diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership inspires young changemakers, and exemplifies the spirit of the Charles E. Odegaard award. It will recognize the accomplishments of a recent UW graduate, who made significant DEI contributions during their time as a University of Washington student and continues to do so post-graduation.

PHI is now accepting applications for Tier 1 grants. The purpose of a Tier 1 grant is to support researchers in laying the foundation for a future project to generate proof-of-concept within research themes such as Safety, Health & Well-being, Equity & Justice and Education. Awards of up to $25,000 per project will be available with a project period of up to eight months. Click here to apply.

Applications for this year’s Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy awards are now open!

The amount of each award has been increased for 2024 from $7500 to $10,000, and twenty awards will be given. The Foundation will also give two Special Awards: A Trustees Award, for the most innovative project (worth an additional $3,000), and the Irving Louis Horowitz Award for the most outstanding project (worth an additional $5,000).

Sign up now to give a presentation as part of eScience Institute’s UW Data Science Seminar Series. The annual series will resume in person for the Fall 2023 Quarter on Tuesday, October 4th in the PAA Auditorium 102. The series showcases a variety of data science methods and tools and how they’re utilized in domain science fields, regional partners, governmental agencies, and industry.