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"The Faculty of Health Sciences emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to research, which allows me to incorporate ideas and points of view from other disciplines into my research."
Josh Alampi
Master's student in the Faculty of Health Sciences
I am a Master's student at the Faculty of Health Sciences working with Dr. Lawrence McCandless and Dr. Bruce Lanphear. Before starting this program, I received my BSci in Health Sciences in 2019.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO COME TO SFU?
I chose to come to SFU because of how it embraces interdisciplinary research. This allows me to collaborate with people with different points of view and be involved with more interesting and impactful projects.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RESEARCH OR YOUR PROGRAM TO A FAMILY MEMBER?
Most research use methods which only find the average effect between factors, and this can sometimes leave out important pieces of information. For instance, liquor taxes tend to decrease people's alcohol consumption on average. Policy makers have therefore called for such taxes to curb problematic drinking. However, further investigation has shown that this is unjustified because liquor taxes do not tend to deter individuals with problematic drinking, despite reducing drinking overall. This highlights a need to look beyond average effects, which can be achieved with an approach known as quantile regression. My research uses quantile regression to better understand the relationship between exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy and child autism outcomes. Previously, I have found that this approach can uncover details which would have been missed with more conventional approaches. Going forward, I will investigate how quantile regression should be implemented in the field of environmental epidemiology, and expand on my previous work to better understand the role of folic acid.
WHAT ARE YOU PARTICULARLY ENJOYING ABOUT YOUR STUDIES/RESEARCH AT SFU?
The Faculty of Health Sciences emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to research, which allows me to incorporate ideas and points of view from other disciplines into my research.
HAVE YOU BEEN THE RECIPIENT OF ANY MAJOR OR DONOR-FUNDED AWARDS? IF SO, PLEASE TELL US WHICH ONES AND A LITTLE ABOUT HOW THE AWARDS HAVE IMPACTED YOUR STUDIES AND/OR RESEARCH.
BC Graduate Scholarship NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master's)
Contact Josh: jalampi@sfu.ca