INVESTIGATORS NEWLY AWARDED TENURE

NIH recently awarded scientific tenure to Sophia S. Wang, Ph.D., of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch (HREB), and Mary H. Ward, Ph.D., of the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB).

Dr. Wang joined HREB as a tenure-track investigator in 2000 after receiving a doctorate in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and serving as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. Her research has focused on understanding the molecular pathogenesis and genetic susceptibility of cervical cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). In her cervical cancer research, she is delineating the genetic and molecular events necessary for each progressive disease stage. In her NHL research, she investigates the role of genetic susceptibility factors and gene-environment interactions in NHL and NHL subtypes.

Dr. Ward began her career at DCEG as a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins, conducting her thesis research within OEEB. After receiving her degree in epidemiology, Dr. Ward stayed in the Branch as a postdoctoral fellow and became a tenure-track investigator in 1999. She has investigated the role of nitrate and nitrite from drinking water and dietary sources on cancer risk, using environmental monitoring data and geographic information systems to assess exposures. She also initiated interdisciplinary collaborations with experts in remote sensing, geospatial science, and environmental engineering to develop new methods to assess exposure to agricultural pesticides. She has applied these methods in case-control studies of NHL and childhood leukemia.