The Weekly SPHere Jan. 7, 2008
The Weekly SPHere is a weekly electronic publication for students in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. To submit items for the Weekly SPHere, please send an e-mail to sphnews@umn.edu.
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School News
News that Minnesota has one of the lowest death rates from heart disease in the nation highlights the importance of public research universities like the University of Minnesota, writes Dean John Finnegan in his most recent column.
• Read the column
Student News
The Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations will be held Sept. 21-24 in Minneapolis. Presentation proposals are being accepted until Thursday, Jan. 31.
• Learn more online
Application materials for the Office of Clinical Research 2008 Summer Pre-doctoral Fellowship Program in Clinical and Translational Research are now available. Applicants are expected to contact a prospective faculty mentor before the deadline and obtain a letter of recommendation from that person. Mentors may be selected from any of the six AHC schools/colleges. The mentor must indicate their willingness to serve as a fellowship mentor and to integrate the applicant into an existing clinical or translational research project for the summer. While mentors and research areas must be identified, applicants do not need to describe in the application specific activities or a specific research protocol. Applications are due in the Office of Clinical Research by 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 1. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
• Access the materials online
Get Certified in Public Health with the new Public Health Certification Exam. The exam is rooted in the five basic core competencies of public health to reflect the nature of the field and the way one area of knowledge blends into another. The certification exam is administered to graduates of CEPH-accredited schools and programs of public health. Exam dates are Aug. 11 to 30. For more details check out www.asph.org and www.publichealthexam.org
Injuries are not accidents. Learn more in PubH 6120 Injury Prevention in the Workplace, Community, and Home, which is being offered in the spring. The two-credit class is being taught by SPH professor Susan Gerberich and guest faculty on Wednesdays from 8 to 9:55 a.m. in WDH 2110. The course will examine injury epidemiology that includes analyses of major injury problems in the public workplace, home and community as well as emphasize strategies for prevention and control. It will also provide a foundation essential to the development of programs for occupational injury prevention and control.
Enter the ASPH Friday Letter Photo-of-the-Month Contest! Each month Friday Letter staff will choose a photo that depicts a public health experience of students, faculty, and staff of ASPH-member schools or affiliates of ASPH-partner organizations. Photo submissions should capture a public health experience such as school/community event or service project, faculty or student research experience, a fellowship/internship experience or a new public health initiative. Submissions should be sent via e-mail as a high-resolution JPEG attachment to submissions@asph.org. Entries should include the photographer's full name, school or organization affiliation, and a brief description (250 words or less) of the photograph. The winning entry for each month will appear in the first issue of the Friday Letter that month. Those who enter certify that the photograph is his/her own original work, that he/she alone owns the copyright to the photograph and that no other party has any right, title, claim or interest in the photograph. Entrants grant ASPH the right to publish the photograph in the Friday Letter and on the ASPH Web sites. Questions can be directed to Ms. Kate Howe at khowe@asph.org or (202) 296-1099.
Check out a new Web site filled with resources to help students plan field experiences, including learning where other students have gone and how they evaluated their experiences. Visit www.sph.umn.edu/current/fe to visit resources, and search past field experiences, preceptors, organizations, and student reviews.
Make plans to enroll in the Global Health Institute in Reykjavik, Iceland from March 31 to April 4. Students can earn three credits during the institute, held at the University of Iceland. The program is open to students in the School of Nursing, School of Public Health and College of Veterinary Medicine. A limited number of travel stipends for airfare is available. Registration through onestop.umn.edu will be available in early January. For more information contact the Global Outreach Team at 6-8434 or tayl0427@umn.edu. For travel stipend information contact Anne Ehrenberg at aehren@umn.edu or 4-6638. Courses Available: Globalization and Health: Challenges and Perspectives (1 credit) March 31-April 1, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Informatics in Global Health (1 credit) April 2-3, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Geothermal Energy and Environmental Hot Spots (1 credit) April 3, 6:30
to 11 p.m. April 4, 7:30 a.m. to- 8:30 p.m.
Equivalency exams for the School of Public Health core courses have been scheduled for January. The dates and times are listed below. Please contact the appropriate person by Jan. 5 if you are interested in taking the exam.
SPH Student Research Day will be a new feature this year during National Public Health Week, April 7-11, 2008. The event includes a student research poster contest, to be held Friday, April 11. All currently enrolled SPH students are strongly encouraged to submit a poster about your research project. This can be for a MPH or MHA Masters' project, MS thesis, or PhD Dissertation. Three dates to mark on your calendars:
- Friday, Feb 1, 9-11 a.m., A-110 Mayo -- Training program: How to design a poster
- Monday, March 10 -- Submission deadline for posters (one per student)
- Friday, April 11, Mayo Auditorium -- SPH Student Research Day
A research poster gives you the opportunity to show off your work! The research does not have to be completed. There will be blue ribbon awards: given by faculty for excellence within each degree program and by students for a Students Choice Award for the best MPH, MHA, MS, and PhD posters.
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SPH Events
"Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: The Science and Policy Divide," will be presented Monday, Jan. 7, noon, by CIDRAP's Michael Osterholm. The seminar, sponsored by the Institute for Molecular Virology, will be held in 1-450 Moos Tower. Refreshments will be provided. Contact Jane Franklin with questions at fran0324@umn.edu.
Planning is underway at the School to celebrate National Public Health Week (NPHW), April 7-11, in a grand way. Please mark your calendars for two inaugural events. The SPH will host its first research day event on Friday, April 11, which will include posters from students. The first all-school Alumni Reunion will take place Thursday, April 10. Keynoting this evening event will be Richard Carmona, former U.S. Surgeon General. Proceeds from ticket and raffle sales will go directly to funding student scholarships through the SPH alumni scholarship fund. Watch the Weekly SPHere for updates on these events.
Save the date for the National Public Health Week Film Festival. This marks the fourth year of this popular series scheduled to be held April 7-11. During that week the NPHW PSA contest, "It's Global," will also be featured for a second year. Stay tuned for details.
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Other Events
The Academic Health Center Office of Clinical Research Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series lecture will be held on Thursday, Jan. 10 from 12:05 to 1:05 p.m. in 2-690 Moos Tower. Bruce Psaty, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, will discuss, "U.S. drug safety system and the F.D.A. Amendments Act." Lunch will be provided. Parking validation is available for those attending the conference at the Oak Street Ramp, Washington Avenue Ramp or the East River Road Garage; we suggest parking in the East River Road Garage.
• Learn more online
Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM) celebrates the 5th Annual Founder's Day on Saturday, Jan. 12 with day-long event titled "Environmental Justice from the Bottom Up." Registration begins at 10 a.m. and the event goes from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Minneapolis Urban League, Glover-Sudduth Center, 2100 Plymouth Ave., N. The keynote speaker is Cecil Corbon-Mark, Director of WE ACT. WE ACT is a non-profit organization based in Northern Manhattan. They are working to improve environmental quality and to secure environmental justice in predominately African-American and Latino communities. Other speakers include Congressman Keith Ellison and Leslie Fields, Environmental Justice Director of the Sierra Club. The event includes workshops, town hall forum, vendor tables, morning and afternoon entertainment. Lunch and snacks provided. For more information call 612-436-5402.
A research symposium on Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology will be held Friday, Jan. 18, at the University of Minnesota's Rochester campus. The purpose is to facilitate further collaborations in: (1) Data mining methods for clinical and laboratory data (2) Computational methods for rational drug design. This symposium will bring together teams of scientists and administrators from the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses, the Hormel Institute, the Mayo Clinic, and IBM.
• Register online. Deadline is Jan. 9, 2008.
Last modified on Friday Jan 04, 2008