Epidemiology Department Celebrates Multiple Award Winners at SER Meeting.

Kelly Diringer Getz, a recent graduate of the PhD program in epidemiology, was awarded Best Student Poster at the annual Society for Epidemiologic Research Meeting.

Getz was lead author on “Implications of Nondifferential Dependent Misclassification of Covariate and Exposure,” honored at the group’s meeting in Seattle. Co-authors were Alana Brennan, a data analyst at the Center for Global Health & Development; and Daniel Brooks and Matthew Fox, associate professors of epidemiology.

Getz performed most of her work as a trainee in the Boston University School of Public Health Training Program in Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology (BURPPE).

BURPPE is an NICHD-funded, four year, pre-doctoral training program in the Department of Epidemiology.  In addition to the requirements for doctoral studies in epidemiology, BURPPE trainees follow a curriculum that includes coursework, research projects, clinical experience, and mentoring in one of three content areas — reproductive, perinatal, or pediatric epidemiology. Trainees complete two years of coursework and two years of epidemiology research, culminating in a doctoral dissertation.

Most BURPEE trainees conduct research out of the Slone Epidemiology Center, whose associate director, Lynn Rosenberg, was honored with a Career Accomplishment Award at the SER Meeting. The Career Accomplishment Award is given to honor an outstanding scholar with extraordinary contributions to the field of epidemiology, or an individual whose work has had a profound impact on epidemiology and shifted the way we practice epidemiology.

Lauren Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology, was honored for lead authorship of research named as an Article of the Year for 2013 by SER and the American Journal of Epidemiology (AJE).

Samantha Parker won the 2014 Lilienfeld Student Prize, awarded by SER to recognize excellence in student research and to reflect SER’s ongoing commitment to the support and encouragement of students.

The SER Meeting was preceded by the annual meeting for the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research. Both gatherings prominently featured the work of several SPH faculty and students who presented or exhibited posters on a variety of topics: