Radiation Epidemiology Branch Fellows
Vladimir Drozdovitch, Ph.D. -Research Fellow
Vladimir Drozdovitch, Ph.D., joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), as a Visiting
Fellow in November 2006. Dr. Drozdovitch has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the Institute
of Power Engineering and Nuclear Research (Minsk, Belarus). During 2003-2006 he was a
scientist in the Radiation Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in
Lyon, France, where he was responsible for the development and validation of dosimetric
models and estimation of doses for the studies of cancer risk following the Chernobyl
accident. Dr. Drozdovitch is working with Andre Bouville, Ph.D. in the field of radiation
and cancer and will participate in a number of projects related to the evaluation of
radiation doses and associated uncertainties.
Todd Gibson, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Todd Gibson joined the Reproductive Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a NCI Cancer Prevention Fellow in October 2010. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Epidemiology (focus on nutrition and cancer) from Yale University in 2010, after spending time as a pre-doctoral fellow in the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB) as part of the Yale University - National Cancer Institute Partnership Training Program. His dissertation utilized dietary, molecular, and genetic analyses to examine the associations between folate and one-carbon metabolism and risk of colorectal and renal cancers. Todd's primary mentors were Drs. Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, Investigator (NEB), and Susan Mayne, Professor, Yale University School of Public Health. He also worked with Drs. Stephanie Weinstein, Staff Scientist (NEB), Ruth Pfeiffer, Senior Investigator, Biostatistics Branch (BB), and Lee Moore, Investigator, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB). Dr. Gibson also has a B.S. degree in nutrition from Cornell University (1998) and an M.S. degree in molecular biology from Lehigh University (2005). As a member of REB, he will be working with Dr. Lindsay Morton, Investigator, REB, and others to examine treatment-related, lifestyle, and molecular/genetic factors influencing the risk of second primary cancers, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Elizabeth Khaykin, Ph.D., M.H.S., S.M. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Elizabeth Khaykin, Ph.D., M.H.S., S.M. joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a postdoctoral fellow in July 2010. Dr. Khaykin received her Master’s in Biostatistics in 2005 and her Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2008, both from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her doctoral research involved examining patient safety in persons with serious mental illness. While at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Khaykin also conducted a meta-analysis on secondhand smoking and cancer for the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, contributed to writing of The International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization monograph on secondhand smoking and cancer, and researched the history of radon and cancer. Dr. Khaykin worked under the mentorship of Jonathan Samet, M.D., M.S., Department of Epidemiology Professor and Chair, Gail Daumit, M.D., M.H.S., Associate Professor of Medicine, and William Eaton, Ph.D., Department of Mental Health Professor and Chair during her time at Hopkins.
In REB, Dr. Khaykin will work with her primary mentor D. Michal Freedman, J.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., Epidemiologist, evaluating cancer risks associated with medication use, ultraviolet radiation, and vitamin D in the United States Radiologic Technologists cohort. Dr. Khaykin will also work with Kiyohiko Mabuchi, M.D., Dr.P.H., Deputy Chief and Senior Scientist, and Alina Brenner, M.D., PH.D., Staff Scientist on assessment of risks of thyroid cancer and related diseases in cohorts of persons exposed to radiation as a result of the Chernobyl accident.
Clara Kim, M.P.H. -Predoctoral Fellow
Clara Kim is a predoctoral fellow in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) and is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Cancer Epidemiology at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Ms. Kim received a B.S. in biology and psychology from Brandeis University in 2005 and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the George Washington University in 2009. For her M.P.H. final thesis she examined the significance of microRNA in the insulin pathway and the association with diabetes. Ms. Kim is working with Lindsay Morton, Ph.D., Investigator, REB to identify patterns of and risk factors for multiple primary cancers among patients with at least one hematologic malignancy.
Stephanie Lamart, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Stephanie Lamart, Ph.D. joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a visiting Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Lamart received her doctorate in Physics in 2008 from the University of Paris XI in France and subsequently obtained the French certification in Medical Physics in December 2009. Her Ph.D. work was in the field of internal dosimetry and focused on the influence of biokinetics of radionuclides on whole-body measurements using numeric voxel phantoms. While with REB, she will work in the Dosimetry Unit and will be mentored by Drs. Steven Simon, Staff Scientist, REB and Choonsik Lee, Investigator, REB. Dr. Lamart is interested in the estimation of organ doses related to external radiotherapy procedures. She also plans to investigate the variability of organ doses received as a result of intakes of 131I for diagnostic or treatment purposes.
Terrence Lee, M.P.H. -Predoctoral Fellow
Terrence Lee is a predoctoral fellow in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) and is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Mr. Lee received a B.S. in Food Biochemistry from the University of California at Davis in 1988 and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1990. He was also a postgraduate environmental health and industrial hygiene fellow at the Uniformed Service University for the Health Sciences in 1997. Mr. Lee served as a civilian epidemiologist with the U.S. Army for over 10 years; he also worked as a medical surveillance coordinator at the U.S. CDC in Beijing, China. Mr. Lee will work with Drs. Mark Little, D.Phil., Senior Scientist, REB, and Alice Sigurdson, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, REB, on his doctoral dissertation which will use the U.S. Radiologic Technologist cohort to examine the risk factors for basal cell carcinoma and risk of subsequent cancer for those with basal cell carcinoma.
Key Publications:
Cari Meinhold Kitahara, Ph.D., M.H.S.-- Research Fellow
Dr. Kitahara joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch in 2008 as a pre-doctoral fellow to conduct her doctoral dissertation work on the etiology of thyroid cancer under the supervision of Dr. Amy Berrington de Gonzalez (REB). In 2011, Dr. Kitahara received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health after successfully defending her dissertation, entitled “The association of obesity with thyroid cancer risk and markers of thyroid function." Dr. Kitahara now works closely with Dr. Berrington de Gonzalez, Dr. Preetha Rajaraman (REB), and others in DCEG and DCCPS to investigate genetic and environmental factors influencing the risk of thyroid cancer and brain/central nervous system tumors and explore new methods for measuring and evaluating obesity and diet for cancer epidemiology studies. She is actively involved in several projects within the NCI Cohort Consortium, including facilitating the development of a large pooled study of the relationship between obesity and risk of thyroid and other rare cancers. Dr. Kitahara also has a B.S. degree from the University of Michigan in biology and anthropology (2005) and an M.H.S. degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2008).
Gila Neta, Ph.D. -Postdoctoral Fellow
Gila Neta, Ph.D., joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), as a Postdoctoral Fellow in September 2009. Dr. Neta has a Ph.D. in occupational and environmental epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her dissertation work focused on environmental chemical exposures and immune and reproductive effects. Dr. Neta is working with Drs. Alice Sigurdson, Staff Scientist, REB and Preetha Rajaraman, Investigator, REB on etiologic studies of thyroid cancer and brain cancer, examining radiation-related risks and genetic susceptibility. She is also collaborating on studies of childhood cancer risks and medical radiation exposures. Additionally, Dr. Neta is working on descriptive studies of thyroid cancer, examining trends in Sao Paulo and other areas in Latin American.
Evgenia Ostroumova, M.D., Ph.D. - Research Fellow
Dr. Evgenia Ostroumova joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) in December 2011 as a Research Fellow. She received her M.D. from the Chelyabinsk Medical Institute, Russia. She had been working in the epidemiology lab of the Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine in 1994-2009. She studied health effects among rural residents in the Techa riverside who have been chronically exposed to ionizing radiation due to radioactive contamination of the area by a plant producing weapons-grade plutonium. Dr. Ostroumova received a Ph.D. in internal medicine from the Tyumen Medical Academy, Russia, in 2005 after successfully defending her dissertation, entitled “Clinical course and outcomes of chronic radiation disease in individuals exposed to protracted ionizing radiation in the antenatal and postnatal periods." In 2009 – 2010 she served as a scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France working on the Agenda for Research on Chernobyl Health (ARCH) project. She had her postdoctoral training at the REB in 2006-2008. Currently, Dr.Ostroumova is working on the Chernobyl project with Kiyohiko Mabuchi, M.D., Dr.P.H., Alina Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., Maureen Hatch, C., Ph.D.; benign breast diseases in the USRT cohort with Alice Sigurdson, Ph.D. and Preetha Rajaraman, Ph.D. and non-cancer thyroid diseases in the CCSS cohort with Peter Inskip, D., Sc.D., Drs. Sigurdson and Brenner.
Evgenia Ostroumova's publications (text and abstracts from our publications)
Lindsey Wu - HHMI-NIH Research Scholar
In September 2011, Lindsey Wu joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a guest researcher through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-NIH Research Scholars program. Ms. Wu received her B.A. in statistics from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she wrote a thesis on heterogeneous ensemble methods in data classification. After graduation, she taught high school mathematics at the Munich International School in Germany for two years before returning to the United States and beginning medical school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She has finished her third year at Duke and is interested in internal medicine as well as research in epidemiology and health services. Under the mentorship of Amy Berrington de González, D.Phil. (REB), Ms. Wu plans to work with the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) database to investigate patterns of sarcomas as second malignancies according to their histology and location and in relation to previous treatment with radiotherapy. Ms. Wu also is evaluating aspects of breast cancer screening among high-risk women under the mentorship of Mitchell H. Gail, M.D., Ph.D., of the Biostatistics Branch.
