Trainees

Our RETCC trainees participate in multiple projects and community engagement opportunities across the Columbia University Northern Plains Superfund Research Program. Below, Core leaders Drs. Annie Nigra and Ben Bostick with RETCC trainees during the CUNP-SRP kick-off event in December 2022.

Current Trainees

Shams Azad, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia Climate School
Dr. Shams Azad earned his doctoral degree from New York University. His research focuses on investigating pollutant exposure dynamics through applying advanced sensing techniques and data-driven methodologies.
Tessa Bloomquist
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Tessa's research primarily focuses on environmental epidemiology and biomarkers of human population studies.
Adina Cazacu-De Luca
- Undergraduate student, Columbia University
Adina is mentored by Ben Bostick and Annie Nigra and her research focuses on metals exposures, including assessing temporal trends and impacts of socioeconomic vulnerability, as well as modeling groundwater arsenic in the Northern Plains.
Christian Dye, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Christian's research focuses on utilizing epigenetic information to identify potentially mechanistic biomarkers that may explain the relationship between environmental exposures and cardiometabolic disease risk in underrepresented communities.
Farideh Hosseini Narouei, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Farideh's research focuses on developing next-generation portable sensors which can be implemented for onsite measurements and household applications.
Mengyuan 'Maggie' Li
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Maggie's reseach focuses on applying data science and statistical methods to quantify air pollution exposure and health impacts in marginalized communities through an interdisciplinary, environmental justice-focused framework.
Wil Lieberman-Cribbin
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Wil's research focuses on epigenetic biomarkers of lead exposure and cardiovascular disease in the Strong Heart Study, as well as investigating the relationship between Selenium status and DNA methylation in the Strong Heart Study.
Catherine Lucey
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Catherine's research focuses on developing methods to isolate individual blastomeres from 8-cell stage mouse embryos and on arsenic and selenium metallomics.
Irene Martinez Morata, MD, MPH
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Irene's research focuses primarily on characterizing biological mechanisms underlying the effects of metals on cardiovascular disease endpoints, as well as identifying and addressing disparities in drinking water contaminants.
Melanie Mayer
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Melanie's research primarily focuses on developing statistical methods for analyzing the effect of an environmental mixture on relevant health outcomes.
Katlyn McGraw, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Katlyn’s research focuses on exposure to underregulated pollutants and their contribution to heart disease, in particular metals, volatile organic compounds, and benzene.
Danielle Medgyesi
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Danielle is currently researching exposure to arsenic and uranium in drinking water and the risks of cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease in California. She also has an interest in household air pollution.
Arijeet Mitra, PhD
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Arijeet’s research focuses on the application of stable and radiogenic isotope systematics on tracing the source and transportation pathways of pollutants (metals and metalloids) in the environment and biological substances.
Kevin Patterson
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Kevin's work focuses on environmental justice in American Indian and Native communities.
Filippo Ravalli
- Graduate student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Filippo's research focuses on applying data science and statistical methods to quantify metal exposure and health impacts in marginalized communities through an interdisciplinary, environmental justice-focused framework.
Adelina Rolea
- PhD student, Columbia University
Adelina's research focuses on mitigating the exposure of hazardous substances on vulnerable populations, and her approach as a geochemist is to center environmental justice and community involvement in both research and fieldwork.
Marisa Sobel
- PhD student, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Marisa’s research focuses on the association between multi-metal exposure and chronic lung disease in adult populations and working to untangle the mechanisms of action.
Nivetha K. Subramaniam
- PhD student, McGill University
Nivetha's current research primarily focuses on mixtures of low dose metal exposure and risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Her primary research area centers on utilizing in vitro and in vivo approaches to study the pro-atherogenic effects of mixtures of arsenic and cadmium exposure at environmentally relevant concentrations.