Keynote/Plenary Panel Session
Dr. Suresh K. Bhavnani is Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, in the School of Public and Population Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He is founding director of the Discovery and Innovations through Visual Analytics Laboratory, senior fellow at the Sealy Center on Aging, Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, member of the Institute for Translational Sciences, and adjunct faculty at the School of Biomedical Informatics in UT Houston.
Dr. Bhavnani obtained a PhD in Computational Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. He specializes in developing and applying methods at the intersection of visual analytics and machine learning, with translation of the results to design healthcare policies and clinical decision-support systems. He pioneered the use of bipartite network analysis and visualization to model patient data and has received five distinguished paper awards from the American Medical Informatics Association. In addition, he has received an outstanding research mentorship award from the University of Michigan, the Rising STARs award from the University of Texas Systems, the Outstanding Paper Award at the Science of Team Science conference, and twice winner of teaching awards from the Academy of Master Teachers at UTMB. Dr. Bhavnani has been PI on grants from NIH, PCORI, CDC, and the AGING Initiative.
Dr. Andrew Wapner, DO, MPH is the Co-Director of the Center for Public Health Practice (CPHP), the Director of the online Master of Public Health Program for Experienced Professionals and an Associate Clinical Professor of Public Health in the Ohio State College of Public Health (CPH).
Before coming to Ohio State, Dr. Wapner served as the chronic disease medical director at the Ohio Department of Health, where he lead the creation of the state's first chronic disease prevention and reduction plan and the plan's implementation collaborative. He also served on several statewide advisory groups, including the Health Policy Institute of Ohio's Health Value Measurement Dashboard and Prevention and Public Health Advisory Groups. Dr. Wapner is a board-certified pediatrician practicing in the Nationwide Children's Hospital Urgent Care system. Prior to joining CPH, he served in multiple roles at the Ohio Department of Health focusing on chronic disease and population health.
Dr. Christopher W. Bartlett is a Principle Investigator at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute of Nationwide Children's Hospital, with an additional role as a Professor of Pediatrics at the Ohio State University. With a strong emphasis on informatics approaches, Dr. Bartlett's research program, supported by the National Institutes of Health funding, is dedicated to investigating the complex interplay of biomedical informatics approaches--including machine learning and artificial intelligence--with advances in research combining electronic health record information to improve the translation of clinical science to patient care. His clinical subject expertise includes neurodevelopmental topics such as prematurity/neonatology, precision medicine dosing, autism, language impairment, and adolescent psychiatry.
Dr. Ayaz Hyder is an Associate Professor in the College of Public Health and Core Faculty in the Translational Data Analytics Institute at The Ohio State University. Dr. Hyder received his Ph.D. in modeling pandemics and health disparities at McGill University and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University and the University of Toronto. He leads the Computational Epidemiology Lab at The Ohio State University, which develops and translates data analytics tools and computational models into public health practice. He leverages systems science and community engagement methods to address complex public challenges, such as opioid addiction and reproductive health policy. His work is funded by NSF, NIH, CDC, and foundations. Recently, Dr. Hyder has partnered with state and local health departments to work on various COVID-19 response efforts, including surveillance, modeling, and mapping vaccine access. Dr. Hyder is currently on a leave of absence from Ohio State to lead the data and integration efforts for the Community Information Exchange at Smart Columbus.
Socrates H. Tuch is a Senior Legal Counsel and the Privacy Officer at the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). A Certified Public Manager, he serves as Chair of the ODH Institutional Review Board and represents ODH on the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood. Socrates addresses matters related to disease control, data privacy and security, emergency preparedness, public records, administrative law, contracts, and ethics.
Socrates teaches Public Health Law and Health Law at Capital University Law School and taught Appellate Advocacy at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. A former Ohio Assistant Attorney General, Socrates was a law clerk with Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals and the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Prior to law school, he was an Assistant Editor with the “Journal of Applied Communication Research” and taught courses in public speaking and interpersonal communication at the California State University, Northridge and the Los Angeles Harbor College.
Break-Out Sessions
Dr. Eben Kenah is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics in the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University. He graduated from the Harvard School of Public Health with an ScD in epidemiology and MS in biostatistics, and he was a postdoctoral fellow in biostatistics and global health at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research interests are epidemiologic methods, survival analysis, causal inference, mathematical models of epidemics, and statistical methods for infectious disease epidemiology.
Dr. Joseph Tien is a Professor of Mathematics with a courtesy appointment in the Division of Epidemiology at OSU. Prof. Tien is co-thematic program director for the Ecology, Epidemiology, and Population Health thematic program of the Infectious Diseases Institute and is a faculty affiliate of the Translational Data Analytics Institute. His research interests are in modeling infectious disease dynamics, network science, data science, and using data-driven methods to understand complex systems. His public health work includes serving as the modeling team lead for the Comprehensive Monitoring Team at Ohio State regarding COVID-19 pandemic response.
Dr. Ping Zhang is an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU), with joint appointments in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), and the Department of Biomedical Informatics (BMI). He directs the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIMed) Lab at OSU. He has received NSF CAREER award in 2022 and IBM master inventor award in 2018. His research has contributed to multiple AI products, including Watson for Drug Discovery, and Watson for Patient Safety. He is an ACM Distinguished Speaker, AMIA Fellow, and IEEE Senior Member.
Dr. Peter White, PhD, is a passionate commitment to enhancing children's health through the power of data science and biomedical research. Dr. White champions data-driven innovation as the inaugural Chief Data Sciences Officer (CDSO) of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children's Hospital and a Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
As a member of AWRI's senior leadership team, Dr. White is responsible for developing and implementing a robust data science strategy. This involves integrating and analyzing diverse big data sources, such as genomic data and electronic health records, to extract critical insights for diagnosing and treating pediatric diseases. He holds the prestigious Battelle Endowed Chair in Quantitative and Computational Biology at Nationwide Children's, complemented by a tenured professorship in Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Before assuming his current role, he was a founding member of The Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine (IGM) senior leadership team. As Senior Director, he established the Computational Genomics Group, playing a pivotal role in pioneering advanced genomic medicine programs.
Students of Dr. Mike Rayo and Dr. Daniel Gingerich
Diego Hincapie-Ossa is a fourth-year PhD Student in Civil Engineering in the Environmental Engineering track. Diego focuses his research on the analysis of multidimensional impacts from the implementation of projects and policies in the energy transition with the ultimate goal of providing scientific-based support to decision-making processes in the energy sector to promote a more sustainable development. Currently, his work is focused in the economic and environmental assessment of strategies to integrate Hydrogen into existing economic activities and in analyzing trade-offs from incorporating justice considerations in grid planning. In these projects, Diego develops analytical frameworks using tools like environmental Lifecycle Assessments, Technoeconomic Assessments, Optimization, and Machine Learning.
Diego holds the Masters of Energy Systems from the University of Melbourne in Australia and a Masters’ degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. Diego also has experience analyzing and promoting projects and initiatives in the energy, transportation, and environmental sectors in Latin America.
Sam Copeland is a second year Ph. D. environmental engineering student with a specialization in life cycle assessments. Currently, he is developing the life cycle assessment methodology for internal combustion engine and electric vehicles by including hourly defined electricity data within the PJM region. This project is funded through the EPA FLEETS for All under the mentorship of his advisor Dr. Daniel Gingerich. Sam received his B. S. in civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh with minors in industrial engineering and africana studies.
Jacob Garnder is a first year PhD student in the Environmental Science Graduate Program. Jacob recently earned his M.S. in Environmental Science from The Ohio State University with a research focus on the water affordability implication of newly implemented federal regulation on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Jacob also holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a Minor in Humanitarian Engineering from Ohio State where he primarily focused on applying engineering standards and practices to build capacity within disadvantaged communities around the world. Jacob has been a part of the Knowledge for Water and Energy Systems Transition (KWEST) Lab since 2020 and has worked broadly on understanding the intersection of engineering, environmental science, and public policy within a water context.
Carissa Moore is a Ph.D. Candidate at The Ohio State University under the guidance of Darryl B. Hood, Ph.D. Her bachelor's degree is in Environmental Science and Chemistry. She participated in tree ring research as well as air quality sensor research for her capstone which imparted experience with Excel and R for data analytics. As a graduate student, she is in the Environmental Science Graduate Program with a specialization in Environmental Health Science. Her research interests are air quality, environmental justice, and science communication. She is a part of several grant teams working to combat pollution and improve quality of life for people living in Ohio. She is also involved in the front-end design and sensor testing for SimpleAQ, a new low-cost sensor company. Her research has been presented at several poster sessions, including the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting. Currently, she is writing a grant for the Decision and Risk Management Sciences branch of the NSF to further her research. In addition, she is the Vice President of the Multicultural Public Health Student Association within the College of Public Health and helps to bring awareness to the field. Her future aspirations are to find a position that will allow her to work with people to help them better understand their exposures either in the field or by participating in potential speaking engagements.
Narmada Ponnamperuma is a PhD student in Civil Engineering in the Environmental Engineering track at the Ohio State University, focusing on water resources management. Her research addresses the water-energy nexus and explores innovative strategies for sustainable water management. Narmada is dedicated to developing solutions that enhance efficiency and sustainability in water management, aiming to contribute to a more resilient and eco-friendly future. Her research also involves calculating and mapping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the census tract level. By integrating emissions assessment and spatial analysis, Narmada aims to provide insights that support environmental sustainability and policy development.