Tarik Benmarhnia is an environmental epidemiologist with a joint appointment at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and School of Medicine. He finished his PhD in epidemiology jointly from the University of Montreal and Paris Sud and a post-doctoral position at McGill University with the Institute for Health and Social Policy. His work is combining epidemiological methods with environmental and econometric models with a specific focus on health policies and environmental justice.
Rosana is a postdoctoral researcher at SIO-UCSD working at the intersection between environmental science, climate and public health. She is also part of the research group directed by Dr. Alexander Gershunov, which focuses on climate and weather extremes. Rosana’s research path started as a watershed hydrologist and limnologist studying spatio-temporal patterns in riverine water quality under global change. During her previous postdoctoral experience at UC Santa Barbara, Rosana was involved in assessing the impacts of nutrient availability and pollution on coastal ecosystems in California. At her current position at SIO, Rosana has focused on the link between coastal water quality and extreme precipitation events caused by atmospheric rivers, which has implications for public health. Her most recent work is related to quantifying smoke exposure from Santa Ana wind-driven wildfires and associated impacts on respiratory health in Southern California.
Chen Chen is a postdoctoral scholar at Climate, Atmospheric Science & Physical Oceanography. Her research explored different aspects of health impact from air pollution, including air pollutants from biomass combustion in developing country, temporal trend of association between fine particulate matter and human health, air pollution related health impact under climate change, and population disparities in air pollution related health burdens. She completed a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Health Sciences from Yale University School of the Environment and a M.S.P.H. degree in Occupational Health and Environmental Hygiene from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Katie Crist, PhD, MPH is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in UCSD’s Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention (T32) program. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health and was awarded her PhD in Health Sciences from the University of Southern Denmark in 2019. She has worked with a research team at UCSD for the past decade and has experience in the delivery of physical activity and sedentary behavior interventions as well as conducting studies of the built environment. Out of this experience, she developed an interest in how public health researchers could help inform the development of communities that support health, equity and opportunities to be more physically active. Her doctoral work focused on understanding the benefits, barriers and facilitators of data driven collaboration between physical activity researchers and transport planners, and demonstrating how research data and methods could help inform active transport planning. Her postdoctoral research focuses on evaluating how the built environment and transport infrastructure impact health and behavior, and the integration of behavioral interventions with infrastructure projects to increase active transportation. She rides her bike to get most places and is highly engaged with numerous advocacy and government organizations working to improve conditions for cycling and walking in San Diego.
Anna Dimitrova earned her PhD at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) in September 2020. Prior to this, she gained an MSc in Socio-ecological Economics and Policy from the WU and an MA in Economics from the University of Glasgow.
In her research, Anna examines the impacts of environmental change on populations in low- and middle-income countries. She is particularly interested in understanding the determinants of climate change vulnerabilities, as well as viable coping and adaptation strategies.
Before joining the department of Climate, Atmospheric Sciences, and Physical Oceanography at UCSD, Anna worked as a pre-doc scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Garber is a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. David Rojas-Rueda at Colorado State University and Dr. Benmarhnia at UCSD. Michael graduated with his PhD from the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in December of 2020. At Emory, Michael used smartphone-generated data to study the effect of bicycle infrastructure on bicycling and bicyclist crashes in Atlanta. His specific focus was considering potential biases and study-design-related issues that could arise from the use of these data sources in epidemiology. He was awarded an F31 predoctoral fellowship from National Institutes of Helath to fund his dissertation research and has co-authored 13 peer-reviewed publications. Before beginning the postdoctoral fellowship, Michael was a Geospatial Epidemiologist with the Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nasser Laouali is a postdoctoral researcher in nutritional and environmental epidemiology at UMass Amherst. He is also part of the “climate change epidemiology” of UCSD and “exposome and heredity” of Inserm teams. Nasser’s work focused on the interconnectedness of nutritional and environmental exposures and health throughout the life-course, i.e. from pregnancy and infancy to old age, with a particular focus on children neurodevelopment and adult’s cardiometabolic health.
Noemie Letellier is a postdoctoral researcher at SIO/FMPH where she will study the effect of environment (e.g. air pollution, climate change, built environment) on health focusing on social, ethnic and spatial inequalities, using spatio-temporal analysis and causal inference methods. Noemie obtained her PhD in Epidemiology from Montpellier University, France. Her dissertation focused on the influence of living and working environment on cognitive performance level and risk of dementia and how it can lead to socioeconomic inequalities in cognitive aging. She obtained her Master’s degree in Epidemiology from the Institute of Public Health, Epidemiology and Development (ISPED) at Bordeaux University. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Lyon University.
Jennifer is a first year PhD student in the UCSD/SDSU Public Health Program in the Global Health Track. She completed her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at the University of San Diego in 2014, after which she worked for the San Diego Airport on a variety of issues such as integrated pest management and sustainability reporting. It was through this experience that Jennifer realized she wanted to be involved in environmental science policy, and so she completed a Master of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 2017, where she worked with Dr. Tarik Benmarhnia looking at climate change co-benefits related to the health impact of interventions reducing air pollution from wood burning in Athens, Greece. After graduation, she continued to work with Dr. Benmarhnia, contributing to communications on climate and extreme weather impacts to human health in Southern California, such as heat waves and wildfires. In 2018, Jennifer worked for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional Office for North America as a Chapter Coordinator for the 6th Global Environment Outlook, focusing on strengthening integrated assessments and the science-policy interface in North America. Continuing along this vein, she then spent 2.5 years working for the National Observatory of Athens in Greece within their Institute for Environmental Research & Sustainable Development focusing on European Commission funded projects and science-policy work related to urban air quality, sustainable development, and climate change impacts on cultural heritage.
Blanche is a French and Chilean student, finishing her Master’s degree in Life Sciences Engineering at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne). In September, she started her master's thesis in Dr. Benmarhnia's lab. Blanche's work consists of investigating the combined impact of dynamic air pollution and traffic noise on cardiometabolic disorders (dyslipidemia, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and obesity) in San Diego County. In her free time, Blanche enjoys doing yoga, running, biking, and going out on the beach.
Gabriel completed his master degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Public Health in the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Peru, and is currently doing the PhD in Pucblic Health at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA. His research is focused on the Epidemiology of Tropical Diseases and the intersection with environmental determinants in resource-limited settings. He is particularly interested in epidemiological, spatial and remote sensing methods to understand the distribution, risk factors and determinants of tropical diseases and the impact of control interventions. In the most recent years, his work was focused on the role of human population mobility in the malaria epidemiology in the Amazon region and the micro-geographic landscape composition as regulator for Malaria transmission dynamics.
Kristen is a 3rd year Biostatistics PhD student studying spatial and temporal statistical methods. In particular, Kristen uses and develops spatial and temporal methodology and applies them to both environmental and environmental health data.
Emma is a MPH student at UC Berkeley with a focus in Environmental and Global Health Sciences. She is interested in the impacts of climate change on human health from a planetary health perspective. Prior to studying at Berkeley, she worked as a land manager in National Parks across California. During this time, Emma restored natural spaces in Yosemite National Park and Muir Woods National Monument. Since the pandemic, Emma has switched her role from physically managing lands to researching how land changes impact human health. More recently, she has researched the nexus between disability, access to green space, and extreme heat. Currently, Emma is researching how changes in landscapes can influence heat related illnesses in urban settings across California.
Allan is a fourth year medical student at UCSF taking a gap year to examine how heat waves impacts pediatric health outcomes throughout California.
Emmet is a PhD student at SIO-UCSD, working jointly with isotope geochemist Sarah Aarons and Tarik Benmarhnia. He uses isotopic source apportionment techniques and geochemistry to characterise the composition and origin of particulate matter (PM) alongside epidemiological tools. In the Southwestern US he investigates how unique types of PM and transport dynamics modulated by modern land-use and climate interact with differential human susceptibility and health outcomes. Emmet completed a BA in Geology at Middlebury College, VT focusing on mineral dust chemistry, transport and deposition. During this time he worked with the Vermont Geological Survey to investigate long-term groundwater contamination from an industrial source, which fostered his interest in using geochemistry to address public health crises. He previously worked as a Technical Designer at Studio Roosegaarde in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, creating concepts for urban infrastructure and artworks that work with and highlight the beauty of earth systems and chemical interactions. Motivated by mutual aid and universal human rights, he is interested in science as a tool to support the power of citizens to uphold the health of their communities.
Lara completed her undergraduate education in Environment with a focus on the Ecological Determinants of Health at McGill University in Montreal. During this time, she spent six months working on a research project in the Peruvian Amazon investigating the social and health effects of a highway construction on communities in the region. When she returned to her studies, she became involved in other research projects, including a study investigating environmental injustices related to incinerator emissions in France through an internship at the University’s Institute for Health and Social Policy. After her undergraduate degree, she spent some time in El Salvador working on health and environmental justice promotion projects. She then worked for a year as a consultant at the World Health Organization, where she was part of the Epidemic Clinical Management team in the Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases Department. As a current doctoral student in the Global Health track of the UCSD-SDSU Joint-Doctoral Program in Public Health, Lara is working on the climate-health interface, such as studying the epidemiological impacts of heat waves and air pollution in California and globally. She is particularly interested in considering the role of seasonality and infectious disease outbreaks on the effect of environmental exposures on human health in the context of a changing climate.
Anaïs is a first-year PhD student in the UCSD-SDSU JDP program studying Epidemiology. Her undergraduate degree was completed in 2016 from UC Berkeley in Earth and Planetary Sciences with a concentration in Environmental Earth Science. It was during this time that Anaïs became fascinated by the intersection between climate change and health, which is why she completed a Master of Advanced Studies in Climate Science and Policy from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. At SIO, she wrote her Capstone report, "Assessing Climate Impacts on West Nile Virus: An Interactive Vulnerability Map & a Preventative Policy Recommendation." Anaïs recognized that she needed to deepen my knowledge in epidemiological methods, which is when she decided to pursue a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at New York University. Anaïs was selected as a graduate researcher for the Climate Change Research Initiative at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she examined land surface temperature and heat-related health effects in at-risk New York City neighborhoods. She was also the senior research assistant and interim data manager at NYU's Population Impact, Recovery, and Resilience (PiR2). Anaïs intends to pursue her research interests in identifying climate change-related adaptation and mitigation solutions that simultaneously aid vulnerable populations and do not compromise the integrity of ecosystems.
Maren is a staff research associate working jointly with the Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation (CCCIA) and the Benmarhnia group. Her role involves making contributions to new and ongoing CCCIA research initiatives by analyzing climate data, writing grant proposals, and most recently serving as the project manager for the new NSF Coastlines and People extreme heat hub centered at SIO. Maren is particularly interested in environmental justice and the intersection between climate change and public health. She graduated from Scripps Institution of Oceanography's MAS program in Climate Science and Policy in 2020, and she holds a BA in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley.
Kaitlyn is a 4th year undergraduate student at UCSD majoring in marine biology. She is passionate about keeping the ocean and the planet free of pollution and making efforts to reduce the harmful effects of climate change on the planet. In her free time, Kaitlyn dives in the waters of San Diego to not only see the beautiful life underwater but to also pick up any trash! After graduation, she plans to pursue a master's degree in marine sciences with a focus on climate change in hopes to help the planet and ocean thrive. Currently, Kaitlyn is researching changes in air pollution of NO2 from opening dates of warehouses in and around marginalized communities in the LA and inland empire areas of California.
Jenny is a fourth-year undergraduate student at UCSD, majoring in environmental systems, with a concentration in earth sciences, and minoring in psychology. She is passionate about understanding the intersections between climate change and public health and is currently researching air pollution exposure disparities in California through an environmental justice lens. She has been an active member of a few sustainability- and climate change-related organizations on campus, working to raise awareness about sustainability and social justice as well as uplift student voices. After graduation, Jenny aspires to pursue a master’s degree in environmental health sciences, with the hopes of working towards research that will inform sustainable and equitable solutions to protect the health of communities globally.
Anna Alari is a post-doctoral researcher in environmental epidemiology at the Pierre Louis
Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health (IPLESP/INSERM) in Paris, France. After a
Bachelor in Economics at the University of Padua in Italy, she developed an interest in health
related issues during her Master degree studies in Research in Applied Economics at the
University of Paris-Créteil (UPEG), when she worked as an intern at the OECD Health
division in Paris. She specialized in Epidemiology and Biostatistics by completing a Master
Degree in Statistical Methodology in Biomedical Research at the University of Paris Sud and
the same year she started working as a PhD student in the Biostatistics, Biomathematics,
Pharmacoepidemiology and Infectious diseases (B2PHI) research unit of the Pasteur Institute
in Paris. She obtained her PhD in Epidemiology with a work about temporal and geographic
variation of pneumococcal meningitis and effect of conjugate vaccine in France. She joined
the CEPEM project (Epidemiologic Characterization of the Air Pollution Episodes and Health
Evaluation of the Policy Measures undertaken to fight them) as a post-doctoral fellow to work
on an evaluation of the effectiveness of the measures undertaken in the region of Paris to fight
against pollution peaks by studying the potential effects of these policies on different causes
of premature mortality through quasi-experimental methods. Her research interests include
impact of climate change and air pollution on human health and she is particularly interested
in exploring the environmental determinants of infectious diseases in order to better
understand diseases transmission and seasonality.
Pargoal is a MAS CSP student at SIO-UCSD. She majored
in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UCLA. Her research interests are air pollution, COVID-19, environmental justice, and climate change. During her free time, her hobbies are yoga, traveling, reading, and baking.
Rachel Darling is a master’s degree candidate in Marine Biology at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography (SIO). She is passionate about climate change and hopes to use interdisciplinary methods of study to mitigate climate change and its impacts. Rachel’s thesis project is focused on particulate matter (PM 2.5) from climate change driven wildfires and how that impacts respiratory hospitalizations in California. Her project studies the potential differential toxicities between wildfire PM 2.5 and ambient PM 2.5 in order to attribute the impacts from each on hospitalizations. Rachel earned her bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology, with a minor in climate change studies, from UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Liz received her master's and bachelor's degree in Earth Science at UCSD. During her time in the Benmarhnia lab, she explored the adverse effects of wildfire smoke on San Diego communities. Her research interests include environmental justice, environmental epidemiology, geospatial analysis, public health, and health equity. Currently, she works at UCSD Health as a research assistant and investigates how social determinants of health impact access to care and health outcomes across the cancer care continuum. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing and being a full-time dog mom.
Pedro is an epidemiology PhD student in the SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program. His research interests include heath disparities, health systems and services, healthcare delivery networks, and global health policies. Prior to the doctoral program, he was Director of Monitoring and Evaluation and Director of International Relations at the Argentina's Ministry of Health. He also worked in HIV/AIDS and STDs surveillance for the DoD HIV/AIDS Prevention Program in San Diego, and was an International Consultant for the Pan American Health Organization in Washington DC. He completed her medical studies and specialized in Family and Community Medicine in Argentina, where he also obtained a Masters' degree in Social Sciences, followed by a MPH from the University of Bologna, Italy. In his free time, you may find him playing soccer, repairing old motorcycles, or just hanging out with his teenage son and daughter.
Rey is an undergraduate researcher at UCSD studying municipal-level actions taken in response to extreme heat events in San Diego County. This work is aimed at identifying opportunities for more collaboration and cohesion between cities and San Diego County in response to extreme heat events. Rey is completing Bachelor's degrees in Global Health and Neurobiology at UCSD and has a minor in Climate Change Studies through SIO. Her interests include designing and implementing effective and equitable responses to climate change, especially with regards to extreme weather events.
Sindana is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington, Department of Epidemiology. Her research priorities include understanding social and biological pathways through which air pollution impacts cognitive outcomes and examining the effect of extreme weather events on aging-related outcomes.
Dr. Luo finished her PhD jointly from UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University, and her research interests are air pollution and health, environmental epidemiology, and complex environmental-human interactions. She has a very rich and diverse research profile that gave her the ability to conduct transdisciplinary public health research, and was a postdoc at UC San Diego with this lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Sara is a fourth-year joint doctoral student and her research interests include environmental epidemiology, infectious disease, and adverse birth outcomes in low-to-middle- income countries. Her current research involves wildfire smoke, dust, and extreme heat and how these exposures affect adverse birth outcomes. She has a Master of Science from San Diego State University in biostatistics and a Bachelor of Science in zoology from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Erika holds a Master of Advanced Studies degree in Climate Science and Policy from SIO-UCSD. Her work in the Benmarhnia lab focused on a capstone project which evaluated the newly implemented Paris Low Emission Zone and determined if the intended community health benefits from improved air quality would be distributed equitably among the region. Overall her research interests include aerosol-atmosphere interactions, environmental justice, and public health.
Andrew Nguyen is a post-baccalaureate researcher at SIO-UCSD. His research and work is oriented around environmental epidemiology, geospatial analysis, data visualization, and design thinking. While earning his Bachelor's of Science in Public Health at UC San Diego, Andrew worked to geospatially identify and analyze night-time safety concerns facing the student population. Following this, he has been involved with the creation and propagation of H-Hub San Diego, an open data repository on homelessness for San Diego. In addition to this, he has worked with the Return to Learn initiative at UC San Diego since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he assists in geospatially analyzing and visualizing the COVID-19 wastewater detection system for the campus.
Paige is an epidemiology PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program at University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. She received her BS in Human Physiology from the University of Oregon and MPH from University of California Los Angeles. Her research interests include environmental epidemiology, health disparities, health policy, and epidemiologic methods.
Marinelle received her undergraduate degree from UCSD studying Environmental Systems and Global Health. Her research interests include the intersection of climate change and health, environmental justice, as well as sustainable mitigation strategies that could aid vulnerable populations and preserve our natural world. In her free time, she loves exploring new hikes, cooking new recipes, and is a loving plant mom.
Steven completed his master’s in public health at San Diego State University and is currently a data analyst at the Qualcomm Institute at UCSD studying the relationship between dynamic geospatial exposures of the physical environment and cancer relates outcomes. During his education and career, Steven has developed a deep passion for addressing health disparities as well as research that benefits those who have the most need. His research interests include cancer epidemiology, environmental justice, social disparities, and at-risk populations. When he is not crunching data and drafting papers, Steven enjoys exploring the beautiful hiking trails of San Diego or spending quality time with his most recent Netflix obsession.
