2017 Dissertation Research Award Winners

The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness is pleased to announce that two Harvard doctoral students have been awarded the inaugural Dissertation Research Award for the 2017-2018 academic year.

The Dissertation Research Award Program was established to assist full-time doctoral students of public health who are conducting dissertation research in the field of positive health science or another closely related field with research related costs. Through this program, the Center seeks to involve students in its work to build a rigorous science of positive health and well-being, and to translate science into practice and policy.

 

2017-2018 Dissertation Research Award Recipients

Farah Qureshi is a Doctor of Science candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her dissertation research will examine the psychosocial predictors of cardiometabolic disease, specifically the pathways by which social adversity impacts early indicators of disease and the ways positive assets may buffer socially disadvantaged children against poor health over the life course. Her research will contribute to a growing body of work exploring the interplay between social environments, children’s emotional functioning and cardiometabolic risk with the goal of identifying new social and psychological targets for primordial prevention of heart disease.

Emeka Agudile is a Doctor of Science candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His dissertation research will focus on the protective roles of positive family social support on substance abuse and risky sexual behaviors by young adults in South Africa, and on the utilization of healthcare services by women in Nigeria. As a community-based physician, Emeka’s seeks to explore the relationships between supportive social networks at the family and community levels and apply this research to inform community-level change.