Keil and Lockett receive 2019 CEHS Rising Star Awards
May 2, 2019
Alexander Keil, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Mathew Ryen Lockett, PhD, assistant professor in the UNC Department of Chemistry, have received 2019 Rising Star Awards from the Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility (CEHS).
Dr. Matthew Lockett
Dr. Alexander Keil
The awards provide financial support and mentoring to early and early-mid career UNC faculty who want to develop their research and leadership competencies in the environmental health sciences field.
Keil’s research focuses on improving the link between epidemiologic studies and policy through the application of statistical methods and theory. His primary research goal is to provide a rational background for policies on environmental exposures that take into account exposure across a lifetime and the interactions between exposures. He plans to use the award funds to support collaborations with other CEHS researchers that will improve existing methods of exposure detection.
Lockett’s expertise is in 3D culture model development, analytical sensors, and biochemical and cell-based assay development. His research evaluates how environmental toxins (in particular potential endocrine disruptors, PFAS molecules and metalloestrogens) promote tumor formation and progression in estrogen sensitive and insensitive breast cancers. Lockett plans to use the award funds to support collaborations with CEHS researchers who can help translate the 3D cell cultures he is developing for public and environmental health screening applications.
The CEHS, housed within the Gillings School, supports the work of environmental health researchers across the University by funding infrastructure needs and shared resources. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, CEHS researchers identify emerging issues in three focus areas: environmental cancer, cardiopulmonary disease and developmental disease. Their work advances understanding of how pollutants and environmental exposures affect public health.
Contact the Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@listserv.unc.edu.
