Dr. Daniel Westreich, assistant professor of epidemiology at The University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded a prestigious New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

[Photo: Dr. Daniel Westreich]

According to the NIH, the award is presented to scientists proposing highly innovative approaches to major contemporary challenges in biomedical research.

“Supporting innovative investigators with the potential to transform scientific fields is a critical element of our mission,”’ said NIH director Dr. Francis S. Collins. “This program allows researchers to propose highly creative research projects across a broad range of biomedical and behavioral research areas that involve inherent risk but have the potential to lead to dramatic breakthroughs.”

Dr. Westreich’s award, which includes a $2.28 million, five-year grant, was presented for his proposal “From patients to policy: innovative epidemiology for implementation science”.

“We proposed to innovate and extend epidemiologic methods to create usable tools for speeding the translation of scientific results of typical epidemiologic studies into public health policy,” Dr. Westreich said. “We plan to apply these tools to two specific problems in HIV – the impact of smoking among people living with HIV and how pregnancy and use of hormonal contraception affect women’s response to antiretroviral therapy.”

Established in 2007, the New Innovator Award initiative supports investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree or clinical residency and who have not yet received a research project grant (R01) or equivalent NIH grant to conduct unusually innovative research.

As part of the award, Dr. Westreich also is invited to the High Risk-High Reward Research Symposium, held December 15-17, in Bethesda, MD.

Read more here: http://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/westreich-receives-prestigious-nih-new-innovator-award/