Select public health students may be eligible to participate in the Drew Summer Science Institute (DSSI) or Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti (RISE). Seniors may also consider completing an honors thesis in public health. Past work has explored topics including:

• Behavioral and hormonal indicators of anxiety and depression in a rat model of early life stress.
• Understanding of inflammatory responses following viral infection and their impact on pathogenesis.
• Leah Nadel (class of 2018), completed the honors thesis, “Quantifying compliance to vitamin D supplementation: preference for the salient and compliance incentives to prevent osteoporosis in a pediatric fracture population.”
• Clara Keene (class of 2016), expanded on her study abroad experiences in her thesis: “A Lost Generation in Central America: A Public Health Perspective.”

Other research opportunities may be available through community-based learning and Civic Scholars courses offered in the program. Past offerings in medical geography, for example, have partnered with the EPA TRI Program, Global Advisors for Smokefree Policy, and the United Nations Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) – Humanitarian Data Exchange to conduct applied public health research as a component of service learning.

Examples on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) include the work of Zainab al Badri, Atia Curtiss and Zoe Garcia on “Afghanistan Rainfall (2013-2016) and Population Comparisons (2010-2020): A Public Health and Food Security Synthesis Report with Corresponding Data,” and Jordan Burnett, Leah Nadel, Victoria Santiago and Arline Tarazona’s work “Nigeria – FEWS Net IPC Acute Food Security Classifications over Time (2009-2018): A Public Health and Food Security Synthesis Report with Corresponding Data.”