University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) Assistant Professor Ivan Wu received an Early-Stage Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR). The award, which recognizes “exceptional early career scientists” from across the country, includes an invitation to ABMR’s annual meeting, where recipients participate in a leadership and career development workshop designed specifically for them.

The ABMR is composed of a diverse group of distinguished scholars elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to behavioral medicine research.

Trained as a clinical cultural psychologist, Wu’s areas of expertise include health disparities, cultural psychology, community-based participatory research methods, racial and gender-based discrimination and stigma, and cancer prevention and control. A primary area of his current research involves the development of culturally sensitive lifestyle interventions among African American adults. For example, Wu is developing a trial intervention that seeks to increase sleep duration in order to improve physical activity and mitigate cancer risk among Black adults.

Wu stated in his letter to the ABMR’s selection committee that the “bedrock of my research in behavioral medicine is to promote cancer prevention and health equity through community-based research. I embed my intervention work in the community by involving members throughout the research process, from recruitment to study design, to maximize an intervention’s relevance and impact within a community.”

In nominating Wu for the award, Susan Everson-Rose from the U of M Medical School called him a “rising star” whose work is “rigorous, innovative and community centered. In the short four months he has been on faculty here at the U of M, he has already started to build active and collaborative relationships with faculty across campus, showing drive and determination to establish a strong reputation and research agenda.”