Environmental Health Sciences

Andrea Baccarelli Best Paper Award

for Postdoctoral Scholars in Environmental Health Sciences

Description

The Andrea Baccarelli Best Paper Award is to recognize the outstanding work of a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. It honors the legacy of Andrea Baccarelli, former department chair, renowned scholar, and beloved leader. It recognizes the best postdoctoral scholar-led paper published or accepted in the department in the preceding year.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, a paper must:

  • Be published or accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal in the year preceding the submission deadline.
  • Be first-authored by a postdoctoral fellow supervised by a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at MSPH. 
  • Be senior-authored by a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at MSPH (not necessarily the same as the supervisor). 
  • Be the fruit of work conducted in the department in the course of the applicant’s postdoctoral studies.

Submission

The submission period for 2025 has now closed. Please check back for details about submission guidelines in 2026. 

  • The name of the first-author postdoctoral scholar being nominated, along with a current email address
  • The name of the senior author who is a faculty member in EHS
  • The citation and a PDF of the article
  • A one-paragraph (< 300 word) description of the importance of the article

Evaluation

Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of faculty members chaired by the postdoctoral faculty advisor (Alan Cohen) based on originality, scientific rigor, and potential impact on the direction of future scientific research and/or on the environmental health of the public. Journal prestige is not a criterion independent of the other criteria.

Award Recipients

Total count of flood events per county by flood causes during 2001–2018

2025: Victoria Lynch for Lynch, V. D., Sullivan, J. A., Flores, A. B., Xie, X., Aggarwal, S., Nethery, R. C., ... & Parks, R. M. (2025). Large floods drive changes in cause-specific mortality in the United States. Nature Medicine, 1-9.