Make it happen.
Make it big.
Together.

Awards for collaborative work.

Interdisciplinary teams are central to the approach of the School of Public Health. 

Collaborative approaches are especially valuable in addressing global issues in areas such as health and climate change. 

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering (SSOE) and School of Public Health (SPH) launched the Trans-Disciplinary Collaboration Pilot Awards to establish and strengthen collaborations between their faculty members. They awarded $220,000 to four collaborative projects in May 2023. The awards aim to help faculty better compete for large-scale external funding in climate change, global health and environmental justice research. 

“The health of the environment is inextricably linked to that of humans,” said Pitt Public Health Dean Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH. “This first deliberate stimulant for transdisciplinary climate and health research between the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and the Swanson School of Engineering is a bold move to forge collaborative research.” 

The inaugural recipients of the Trans-Disciplinary Collaboration Pilot Awards were:  

Environmental PFAS pollution, heat stress and kidney disease: a pharmacokinetic approach integrating persistent chemical exposures and climate change
Alison P. Sanders, PhD, assistant professor of EOH, SPH
Carla Ng, PhD, associate professor of CEE, SSOE 

Revealing environmental contamination and potential exposure pathways by PFAS in Suriname and Ghana
Firoz Abdoel Wahid, MD, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of EOH, SPH
Nesta Bortey-Sam, PhD, assistant professor of EOH, SPH
Carla Ng, PhD, associate professor of CEE, SSOE 

Simultaneous Removal of Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollutant from Waste Gases by Co-immobilized Enzymes
Peng Gao, PhD, assistant professor of EOH, SPH
Meng Wang, PhD, assistant professor of CEE, SSOE 

Exploring the Feasibility, Governance, and Public Communication of Biomining to Advance Inclusivity and Environmental Justice
Tina Ndoh, PhD, associate professor of EOH, SPH
Meng Wang, PhD, assistant professor of CEE, SSOE
Elizabeth Pitts, PhD, assistant professor of English, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences  

The previous year, the awards focused on addressing public health under the threat of climate change through precision public health. Five projects with co-investigators from Pitt’s School of Public Health and School of Medicine were awarded $45,000 each from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).