2025 Research Article Awardees
Research articles are nominated and selected by the UIC public health community annually. Awards recognize and highlight the excellent research that is being produced in the School of Public Health, including the Institute for Health Research and Policy. Read articles by this year's awardees and honorable mentions below, and learn more about the Research Article Awards and previous winning articles here.
Student First Author
Winning | Accelerated longitudinal glycemic changes in relation to urinary toxic/essential metals and metal mixtures among Mexican Americans living in Starr County, Texas.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Margaret C. Weiss, Jiehuan Sun, Mary E. Turyk, Luyu Wang, Maria Argos, and Robert M. Sargis
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Honorable Mention | Facilitators and barriers to implementing a comprehensive sexual health education policy in Chicago Public Schools.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Kristen Belcher, Elizabeth Jarpe-Ratner
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Postdoctoral Fellow / Research Associate
Winning | Persistent organic pollutants and endogenous sex-related hormones in Hispanic/Latino adults: The Hispanic Community health study/study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL).
- UIC / SPH Authors: Chibuzor Abasilim, Victoria Persky, Robert M. Sargis, Tessa Day, Konstantina Tsintsifas, Martha Daviglus, Sally Freels, Arille Grieco, and Mary E. Turyk
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Honorable Mention | The impact of recreational cannabis markets on motor vehicle accident, suicide, and opioid overdose fatalities.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Samantha Marinello and Lisa M Powell
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Early Career
Winning | Aging in isolation: Sexual orientation differences in navigating cognitive decline.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Nathaniel M. Tran
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Honorable Mention | How racism and discrimination impacts Black young women’s sexual health: The influence of racial and sexual stereotypes on educational access.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Ashley V. Hill
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Open
Winning | Alternative payment models and performance in federally qualified health centers.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Justin Markowski
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Honorable Mention | Exposure to school racial segregation and late-life cognitive outcomes.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Zhuoer Lin
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Multidisciplinary Collaboration
Winning | Changes in risk behaviour following a network peer education intervention for HIV prevention among male Tajik migrants who inject drugs in Moscow: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Mary Ellen Mackesy-Amiti, Judith A. Levy, Casey M. Luc
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Honorable Mention | Trends in children’s exposure to food and beverage advertising on television.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Lisa M. Powell, Julien Leider, Rebecca M. Schermbeck, Aline Vandenbroeck
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Faculty-Master / Undergraduate Student Collaboration
Winning | Investigation of occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) among engineered stone fabricators in Chicago—A pilot study.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Alissa DeVaughn, Leonard H. T. Go, Robert A. Cohen, and Yuan Shao
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Honorable Mention | A pilot survey of students’ menstrual attitudes, experiences, and needs on an urban university campus.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Abigail Suleman, Shruthi Krishna, Divya Krishnakumar, Kai Nemoto, My Lê Thào Nguyen, and Supriya D. Mehta
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Faculty-Doctoral Student Collaboration
Winning | Changes in stigma and social support among participants in a randomized trial of a novel expanded social network-based HIV testing intervention in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Leslie D. Williams and Wendy Avila Rodriquez
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Honorable Mention | Individual and contextual determinants of ART adherence among a sample of young Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men living with HIV in the United States.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Casey M. Luc, Kara Herrera, Sierra Upton, Li Liu, Antonio Jiminez, and Mark S. Dworkin
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Community Collaboration
Winning | Informing vaccine messaging and community outreach: Experience in Chicago with a community-based participatory approach.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Naseem Parsa, Mark Dworkin, Caesar Thompson, SangEun Lee, Aram King, Diana Ghebenei, Nadine Peacock, Jeni Herbert-Beirne, and Emily Stiehl
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Honorable Mention | Engaging men in maternal, infant and young child nutrition in rural Tanzania: Outcomes from a cluster randomized control trial and qualitative study.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Jessica Rothstein, PhD
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Theoretical / Conceptual
Winning | Modeling of randomized hepatitis C vaccine trials: Bridging the gap between controlled human infection models and real-word testing.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Mary-Ellen Mackesy-Amiti, Jonathon Ozik, and Basmattee Boodram
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Honorable Mention | Methodological insights about photovoice as a pedagogical tool from implementation with graduate students as co-researcher-participants.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Marjorie Kersten, Dolores Casteñeda, Jeni Hebert-Beirne
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Methodological
Winning | Challenges and opportunities for participatory evaluation of local public health efforts to address structural racism and advance health equity.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Tiffany N. Ford, Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts, Ayesha Chaudhry, Candice Gary, Diana Ghebenei, Jeni Hebert-Beirne, Hodan Jibrell, Maura Rose Kelleher, Abha Mahajan, Eve Pinsker, Simone Taylor, Nancy Valentin, Alisa Velonis, Benjamin A. Shaw
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Honorable Mention | Bayesian dose escalation with overdose and underdose control utilizing all toxicities in Phase I/II clinical trials.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Jieqi Tu and Zhengjia Chen
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Global Health
Winning | Comparison of a novel expanded social network recruitment intervention with risk network recruitment to HIV testing: Locating undiagnosed cases in South Africa.
- UIC / SPH Authors: Leslie D. Williams and Wendy Avila Rodriquez
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Honorable Mention | Implausibility of radical life extension in humans in the twenty-first century.
- UIC / SPH Authors: S. Jay Olshansky
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