Notice of Recruitment for Population Health PhD Applicants in Environmental Health at Northeastern University

September 11, 2023

Come join our growing team of environmental health researchers in the Department of Health Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts! We seek applicants to our Population Health PhD Program who are focused on environmental exposures and intervention opportunities related to maternal and child health outcomes across the life course. There will be opportunities to leverage data from multiple pregnancy and birth cohorts. Submission deadline: December 15, 2023.

Successful candidates will be offered a competitive 5-year funding package that includes stipend and tuition coverage. There will be an opportunity to affiliate with the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI), a large center that undertakes a range of diverse collaborative social science and environmental health research projects on PFAS (as part of the PFAS Project Lab working group), problems related to water equity and resources, and environmental injustice across the life cycle of oil and gas production. SSEHRI collaborates with faculty in many colleges at Northeastern, with many community-based organizations, and with faculty and scientists at other institutions. Northeastern has an extensive environmental health infrastructure, including a Superfund Research Program, Children’s Environmental Health Center, Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO), NIEHS T32 Training Program, and numerous individual NIH and NSF grants.

Mentorship and training will be guided by Dr. Julia Varshavsky, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Sciences and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, whose research experience includes epidemiology, toxicology, and exposure measurement of phthalates, flame retardants, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), air pollutants, and other environmental chemicals in multiple biological and environmental media. Additional opportunities for training will be provided within SSEHRI and the broader Northeastern community, as well as through external collaborations with leading scientists at cutting-edge institutions across the country. Potential PhD projects could include, but are not limited to, the following research areas:

  • Environmental chemical mixtures and maternal-fetal-child health outcomes
  • Community-engaged research and environmental health intervention studies
  • Advancing U.S. chemical risk assessment and systematic review methodology
  • Bridging the gap between human health and sustainability
    Essential qualifications:
  • Highly motivated, detail-oriented, and good time management skills
  • Commitment to scientific excellence and desire to advance environmental health research
  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively
  • Experience with data management and data science
  • Coding in R, python, SAS, or STATA (R or python preferred)
    Desired qualifications:
  • Experience with statistical modeling of chemical mixtures
  • Interest in advancing research on chemical and non-chemical stressors
  • Expertise in computational biology and analytical approaches to biomonitoring data
  • Experience or interest in systematic review and Tableau/Distiller software

For application instructions, please visit https://bouve.northeastern.edu/healthsciences/programs/population-health-phd/.

For questions about the position, please contact Dr. Julia Varshavsky at [email protected].

About Northeastern University
Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning, with an enrollment of more than 17,000 undergraduate and 7,000 graduate students and approximately 4,300 faculty and staff. NU is located in Boston’s historic Back Bay, four blocks from the Longwood Medical Area, encompassing Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital Boston, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and eight blocks from the Boston Medical Center. NU has announced a call to action to address systemic racism and advance the university’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

NU’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences has over 200 faculty members, with approximately 2,000 undergraduate and 2,400 graduate students. It is the leading national model for education and research in the health, psychosocial and biomedical sciences. Bouvé’s Department of Health Sciences has over 40 faculty and offers a CEPH-accredited undergraduate program in Health Sciences, four masters programs (MS in Exercise Science, MS in Health Informatics, MS in Real World Evidence, and CEPH-accredited Masters in Public Health), and two doctoral programs (PhDs in Population Health and Personal Health Informatics). The Department is home to approximately 1,000 undergraduate majors in the CEPH-accredited Health Science B.S. and Public Health B.A. majors, and 300 graduate students. It is playing a central role in expanding public health programs.

This content provided by the PFAS Project.