School Notes: School of Public Health
March/April 2020

New center will address climate change

A new center has been established at the Yale School of Public Health to address climate change, one of the crucial environmental and public health challenges of the twenty-first century. The Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH), which evolved from the Yale Climate Change and Health Initiative, aims to utilize research, education, public health practice, and service to help achieve a stable and safe climate in which public health and diverse ecosystems thrive. Calling it a “significant step forward,” Dean Sten H. Vermund said that YCCCH will fundamentally reshape the way YSPH—and Yale—address climate change. 

YSPH researcher receives top prize in statistics

Hongyu Zhao was recently presented the Pao-Lu Hsu Prize at the 11th International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) conference in Hangzhou, China. Zhao is chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health and the Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics. The prize is awarded every three years by the ICSA to an individual who makes influential and fundamental contributions to any field of statistics and probability. Zhao was recognized for his “fundamental and impactful contributions” to statistical methodologies in a broad area of genetics and computational biology and his pioneering work in microbiome analysis.

Alumni groups recognized for diversity efforts

The Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health and its Emerging Majority Affairs Committee have been honored by the Yale Alumni Association (YAA) for advancing diversity. The Board of Governors Excellence Award was presented during the 2019 YAA Assembly and Alumni Fund Convocation. It recognizes the two groups for sponsoring a retreat in 2019 to discuss ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The retreat focused on developing strategies to strengthen DEI infrastructure and measure progress for DEI initiatives.