FHS doctoral students win awards to support their interdisciplinary research

By Sarah Campbell

Two PhD students in the Faculty of Health Sciences have won awards which will allow them to focus exclusively on their research over the next few years.

Kate Hosford’s research concerns the design of city transportation systems to make people healthier, happier, and safer.

“I will be working on an international project called Pathways to Equitably Healthy Cities. My focus will be on evaluating the health and equity implications of different transportation policy scenarios that may play out in Vancouver over the next couple of years.”

Hosford was awarded the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship, and also plans to take advantage of the Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement program that is available to award winners, providing funding for research at an institution outside of Canada.

According to Hosford, shifting transportation away from cars to more sustainable modes of transportation, such as walking, biking, and public transit, is an important step towards addressing some of the complex health and environmental challenges facing our societies. “By evaluating the potential health and equity impacts of different transportation policy scenarios, I hope to inform future transportation planning efforts to ensure new policies bring positive impacts to health and enhance health equity,” she says.

Harry Zhuang will undertake research on the development of statistical tools for assessing the effects of environmental chemicals on pregnancy outcomes.

He won the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral Program award, and says it will help cover living costs, allowing him to devote more time to research that could have important implications.

“This study will provide researchers with a new tool for assessing mixture effects of environmental chemicals. It will allow researchers to better understand impacts and eventually be beneficial to pregnant women and their developing infants,” says Zhuang.

Both Hosford and Zhuang value the interdisciplinary nature of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Zhuang says that the interdisciplinary research environment is his favourite thing about the Faculty of Health Sciences and SFU: “People from different academic backgrounds are brought together at FHS to ignite ideas, discussion on different perspectives, and ways of doing research.”

“Much of our health and the distribution of health inequities is affected by factors outside of the health sector,” says Hosford. “It’s great to be part of a faculty that approaches health from so many different perspectives.”