# Advanced training in environmental health and data science: molecules to populations

> **NIH NIH T32** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $1,450,033

## Abstract

Project Summary
Advanced training in environmental health and data science: molecules to populations. This application
represents the consolidation of three NIEHS T32 training grants at Columbia University into a unified training
program designed to address critical needs in the field of environmental health sciences. We propose a
program with 18 predoctoral students and 8 postdoctoral scholars. Our mentoring team has substantial funding
from NIEHS (>$13,000,000 per year) and other agencies (>$40,000,0000 per year) that provides a wealth of
opportunities for original research by both pre- and postdoctoral trainees. Our predoctoral trainees will
participate in: 1) a core curriculum in environmental health sciences (using a life course approach to study
molecular mechanisms of disease, epidemiologic methods, health effects of climate change, and the
exposome) 2) a core curriculum in data sciences, 3) specialized coursework to support dissertation research,
4) research rotations, 5) small interdisciplinary training groups, and 6) dissertation research. Although our
trainees will continue to take traditional didactic coursework, the addition of small interdisciplinary training
groups, workshops, and boot camps creates a facile platform that can rapidly evolve to enable student
exposure to cutting-edge methods that address future needs in the field. Through a collaboration with the
Columbia University Data Science Institute (DSI) we propose a highly innovative training program for our
postdoctoral trainees. One of the leading data science programs in the world, the Columbia DSI will provide
complementary training and support for our fellows, including participation in their existing data science
postdoctoral fellows program based in computer science and engineering. Fellows will acquire advanced data
science skills to complement their environmental health science research (the primary focus on their training).
In their second year, these fellows will enhance their leadership skills by facilitating our workshops, bootcamps,
and mini-courses (machine learning, data visualization, network science) for the predoctoral trainees. Thus, the
postdoctoral trainees will acquire a skillset that prepares them to apply advanced data science approaches to
environmental health in the laboratory and in the classroom. Moreover, each postdoctoral fellow will lead (with
an assigned faculty mentor) a small interdisciplinary training group of predoctoral trainees, providing an
ongoing forum for interaction and collaboration between the pre- and postdoctoral trainees and enhancing their
skills in guiding team science.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10198926
- **Project number:** 5T32ES007322-20
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Pam R Factor-Litvak
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,450,033
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2000-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10198926

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10198926, Advanced training in environmental health and data science: molecules to populations (5T32ES007322-20). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10198926. Licensed CC0.

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