Student Spotlight

UTMB SPPH’s 2025 Faculty-Student Research and Scholarship Mixer at the HEC connected graduate students with faculty across all four departments, sparking mentoring relationships, project ideas, and concrete next steps for research and community-focused scholarship.

Zhiwei Hu draws on early palliative care experience in Chengdu, graduate training at LSE, and doctoral work at UTMB to study hospice disparities. His recent GSA presentation and travel award support a growing research path focused on equity in end-of-life care.

Kidney Week spotlighted real-world progress: AI that assists clinicians, primary-care training that boosts early detection, and strategies to address food, housing, and access. Fellows also warn about smoking’s cadmium damage and urgent global care gaps.

Rehab Sciences PhD student Winrose Windsor presents at APHA 2025 with a national analysis of 2021–2023 NHANES data. Moderate leisure-time activity links with lower odds of stroke (57% in men, 49% in women) and supports realistic weekly goals.

This student-written guide helps readers judge research claims. It covers trusted sources, a plain-language glossary, the trap of correlation vs causation, red flags like tiny samples and missing limits, and a call for clear, open science.

Emily Edgar joined Dr. Gray's One Health lab without bench science experience. Nine months later, she co-authored research documenting rare influenza C in cattle. Her work revealed declining virus prevalence and genetic mixing between bovine and human variants.

Practical LinkedIn playbook for MPH students, distilled from an SPPH workshop by Allie Murphy and Sheheryar Ali. Learn a search-friendly headline formula, smart connections, the conference program PDF trick, a simple post template, and job-alert tactics you can use today.

Georgia Loutrianakis began in neuroscience and built a path in clinical ethics, studying how mistrust, gender norms, and advance-directive laws shape reproductive autonomy. UTMB’s bedside-focused PhD prepared her well for fellowship work at Wellstar.

SPPH students, alumni, and faculty joined TXPHS25 in Houston, engaging sessions on technology, transmission, and trust. Their reflections highlight collaboration, One Health, the challenge of misinformation, and emerging risks like New World screwworm.

Monica Hernandez’s journey in public health spans global HIV work, federal policy roles, and doctoral training at UTMB. Now at MD Anderson, she applies her quantitative toolkit to patient-centered cancer prevention research with real-world impact.

At the first townhall, the SPPH Student Association outlined three pillars that cover service, career prep, and community. Next steps include a Sept 29 volunteer event, free StrengthsFinder coaching, LinkedIn headshots, WAGs, and the Hablamos Spanish club.

Once a molecular biologist, Utpol Das shifted to public health after seeing preventable deaths. After BRAC training and WASH work in Rohingya camps, he joined UTMB SPPH to study H-EPESE data on pain, depression and insomnia in older Mexican Americans and prepare for a PhD.