Columbia Public Health Magazine

Dana Points interviews alumni and students about how they have benefitted from their time at the School, and asks them to consider the future—both for themselves and for the profession of public health.

When Columbia Mailman School alumni met current students at a networking event on campus this spring, the room was buzzing with connection and community. There was lots of talk about career plans, challenges, and opportunities. One thing everyone could agree on: Public health matters.

Columbia Mailman School researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up laborious research steps, probe minute variations in proteins with speed and accuracy, and develop ways to predict disease progression—all while working to ensure that AI tools for public health are both actionable and trustworthy.

By Carolyn Wilke/Illustration By Josie Norton

In August 2024, experts from across Columbia University gathered in Columbia Mailman School’s Hess Commons. As they sat under windows overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades, the group—computer scientists, biostatisticians, and engineers—focused their attention on something else: envisioning how artificial intelligence (AI) could usher in a new era for public health research.

The School’s researchers are working to help prepare communities around the globe for extreme heat and other changes related to the climate crisis.

By Tim Paul

In Ahmedabad, India (population 9,062,000), daytime temperatures in the spring routinely reach the upper 90s F (36 C). But midway through May 2010, the city experienced a new kind of hell: blistering conditions climbing as high as 116 F (47 C)—the hottest day in nearly a century.  At Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital in the city center, a line of people seeking treatment for heat-related illnesses stretched out of the doorway and onto the street outside. Ultimately, records showed that there were more than 1,300 deaths above what would typically be expected in a summer month, excess mortality attributable to the heat. Eight hundred people died in a single horrific week. Most were older adults and people with preexisting conditions.

The three M’s of women’s health—menstruation, maternity, and menopause—are getting well-deserved attention from experts across departments.

By Christina Hernandez Sherwood

In her 80-year lifespan, the average American woman will menstruate more than 400 times, give birth to one or two children, and have symptoms of menopause for five to ten years. These profound, hormonally driven experiences are linked to public health, yet woefully underresearched. The majority of studies in the field of aging, for example, fail to consider menopause. Public health scientists across multiple departments at Columbia Mailman School are working to bridge this gap. And though federal funding cuts have slowed progress, there’s exciting research to report and more on the horizon.