Mentor Areas
- Statistical modelling
- Cancer
- Spatial epidemiology
Description:
As part of Penn's Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) and Abramson Cancer Center (ACC), Dr. Hwang has explored various statistical methods to analyze environmental and spatial data to understand the relationships between environmental exposomics and health outcomes including lung cancer and other malignancies. Most projects will utilize data from publicly available data sources such as U.S. Cancer Statistics Database, SEER, US Census, EPA's and NASA's Air Quality Data, and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).
There are several potential directions that a student can consider: (1) To evaluate the disparity of air pollution and lung cancer incidence and mortality in environmental justice (EJ) communities near Philadelphia after adjusting for other demographic and other confounding factors; (2) To evaluate the agreement between the small area air quality estimates that were based on EPA air monitor data versus NASA satellite data or from different models; (3) To evaluate the association between lung cancer incidence rates and the our derived hazard index in Pennsylvania and determine if the association differ by the four major histologic subtypes: adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma, and small cell lung cancer; (4) To modify our previous derived hazard index by incorporating NASA’s satellite-based air quality data or other publicly available data sources on air pollution; (5) To implement and compare some modern statistical methods for assessing effects of chemical mixture on cancer or neurobehaviors outcomes.
Preferred Qualifications
Basic knowledge of Statistics and R is required.
Details:
Preferred Student Year
Junior, Senior
Academic Term
Spring, Fall
I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).Volunteer
Yes
Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.Paid
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.Work Study
No
Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.