Jaimie Gradus Honored for Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement

The Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) has named Jaimie Gradus (SPH’09), professor of epidemiology, as the 2024 winner of the Carol J. Rowland Hogue Award for Outstanding Mid-Career Achievement, bestowed annually to “recognize a mid-career scientist who has made an exceptional contribution to the practice of epidemiology.”

Awardees are selected based on multiple factors that could include “a body of work or a singular achievement in epidemiologic research, applications of epidemiology to promote public health, or methodologic advances.” Gradus received her award Thursday evening at the SER Annual Meeting, held in Austin, Texas.

Gradus, a 2009 graduate of the School’s epidemiology doctoral program, has amassed a remarkable academic career, with research interests in the epidemiology of trauma and trauma-related disorders. She was the 2009 winner of SER’s Lilienfeld Student Prize for her paper on the association between PTSD and death from suicide in the population of Denmark. She has received multiple grant awards to conduct psychiatric epidemiologic research in both veterans and the general population, and has served on a variety of advisory and journal boards within the field.

“Dr. Gradus has emerged as a powerhouse in the field of mental health epidemiology,” said Maria Glymour, professor and chair of epidemiology. “She has championed a public health perspective on prevention of psychiatric disorders and fielded exceptionally rigorous and data-intensive research on prevention and treatment to promote mental health. Her work, redefines the frontier of research on trauma and challenges the conventional restrictive definition of trauma. This work promises to help prevent and effectively remediate the often-enduring consequences of traumatic experiences.  As reflected in this award, she has rapidly become a field leader.” 

In 2023, she was named director of the School’s Center for Trauma and Mental Health, and in January 2024, she was named director of the PhD Program for the BUSPH Department of Epidemiology.

The award was created by the Department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in honor of Dr. Carol Hogue, a pioneering epidemiologist renowned among her peers for using surveillance systems, developing psychosocial measurement of racial disparities, and conducting groundbreaking epidemiologic studies of perinatal outcomes.

Julia Bond Named Winner of Tyroler Student Prize Paper Award at SER

Julia Bond (SPH’24), who successfully defended her dissertation in April, was named winner of the Tyroler Prize Paper Award, given to recognize the best submitted paper by a student in a doctoral program with a concentration in epidemiology. Bond’s dissertation title is “Oral and sexual health during the preconception period and reproductive outcomes” and was partly developed during Bond’s work with the research team at PRESTO, the web-based research study at SPH that examines whether lifestyle factors such as diet, stress, exercise, and medication use have an effect on fertility and pregnancy.

Bond previously received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to study preconception oral health and reproductive health outcomes in PRESTO. She received an MPH in Epidemiology with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Washington and a BA in Neuroscience from Bowdoin College.

“Dr. Bond’s award reflects the innovative work of our students, including centering the experiences of women,” Glymour said. “So many experiences that profoundly shape our daily lives and well being have historically been under-attended or largely ignored in health research. Dr. Bond is launching her career bringing rigorous methods to the study of women’s sexual health and well-being. She continues a long-tradition of award-winning graduates from our doctoral program.” 

Bond joins former SPH doctoral students Julie Petersen, Samantha Parker, Jaimie Gradus, and Matthew Fox as winners of the Tyroler Award, which honors Herman Alfred (Al) Tyroler, MD and is sponsored by the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.