Congratulations to population health analytics trainees Lief Pagalan and Vinyas Harish for being awarded CIHR Awards in support of their graduate studies! Lief has been awarded a CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships and Vinyas has been awarded Canada Graduate Scholarships – Masters Awards (CGS-M).
Lief Pagalan is a first-year PhD student in epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. For his PhD, Lief is developing a premature mortality risk prediction tool using machine learning and health behaviours, social, clinical and environmental data (e.g. air pollution, green space, built environment characteristics). His research will help identify communities at higher risk of premature mortality, highlighting individual and environmental risk factors, healthcare gaps, and prevention opportunities across diverse populations. Lief’s research will help meet the growing demand from health system planners for analytic, decision-support tools capable of informing health system planning and population-level interventions.
Vinyas Harish is a 3rd year MD/PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, where he’s pursuing his PhD in Clinical Epidemiology. For his PhD, Vinyas will be exploring the role of machine learning methods to complement traditional, epidemiological techniques in predicting the spread and impact of COVID-19 using novel, high-dimensional data sources. He is also interested in the ethical implications of such ‘digital epidemiology’, especially as they relate to partnerships and collaborations with private technology companies.