Award-Winning Papers from GHP Students
Students: Planning a project? Visit the undergraduate section of our site for help planning your research and to learn more about the GHP Senior Thesis requirement. Then explore our senior thesis library.
2018 Thesis Award Winners
The Global Health and Health Policy Senior Thesis Prize is awarded in recognition of the most outstanding thesis written by a student earning a certificate in Global Health and Health Policy.
The 2018 Global Health and Health Policy Senior Thesis Prize co-recipients are Aaron Gurayah (Molecular Biology), Paulita Lara Mejia (Neuroscience), and Julia Song (Woodrow Wilson School).
- Guarayah’s thesis is “DNA Methylation as a Mediator of the Association Between Cognitive Ability and Neighborhood Air Pollution in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.”
- Lara Mejia’s thesis is “The Developing Brain Under Stress: Long-Term Consequences of Early Life Stress on Behavior and Neuroplasticity in the Hippocampus.”
- Song’s thesis is “Impact of Hospital Closures on Quality of Care in New York City: An Analysis of the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.”
The following theses received honorable mention:
- Tigist Menkir (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) – “An Integrated Approach to Evaluating the Patterns and Impacts of Vaccine Confidence on Meningitis Dynamics in Nigeria and the UK“
- Morgan Brewton-Johnson (Woodrow Wilson School) – “Redefining Investment in Health: A Comparative Analysis of the Relationship Between Social Service Expenditure and Population Health Across OECD Nations”
- Ricky Chae (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) – “An Epidemiological Assessment of the Risk of Fatal Motor Vehicle Collisions with Benzodiazepine Use in South Korea”
- Tristan Lim (Chemical & Biological Engineering) – “Towards the Development of Accessible and Biocompatible Porphyrin Nanoparticles for Pet Imaging Applications”
2017 Thesis Award Winners
Kishan Bhatt (Woodrow Wilson School) - “Safeguarding American Patients, A National Regression Analysis and State-Focused Case Study of Health Insurance Coverage and Medical Bankruptcy.”
Nabil Shaikh (Politics) - “Global Access to End-of-Life Care: An Intrinsic Dignity-Based Theory of Holistic Health.”
Honorable Mentions:
- Isao Ansai (Molecular Biology) – “Knockout Sudoku: An Investigation of the Genetic Basis Behind Extracellular Electron Transfer in Shewanella oneidensis MR“
- Rachel Choi (Molecular Biology) – “The 100-Year Struggle: The Search for a New Vaccine for Tuberculosis”
- Zach Levine (Anthropology) - "Conspiracy & Sorcery, The Public & Expertise: Searching for Conceptualizations of Global Health in the Post-Truth Era"
- Janelle Tam (Molecular Biology) – “Take Your Telomeres to Church: The Association between Religiosity and Telomere Length in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study”
2016 Thesis Award Winners
Jamie Shenk (History) - Where Were You When They Killed Lara Bonilla? Politics of Drugs and Peace in Colombia (1982-1984) Download the full thesis. (link is external)
Lena Sun - (Economics) - Technological Transformation in Health Care: The Impact of Electronic Medical Records on Quality and Cost of Care in California Download the full thesis. (link is external)
Honorable Mentions
- Isabella Fernandez (Politics) - The Impact of Securitizing Aid on the Efficacy of Aid Development Programs in Post-Conflict Countries: A Case Study in Women’s Reproductive Health in Afghanistan (link is external)
- Helena Hengelbrok (Anthropology) - WATER BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE THIRSTY: An Ethnography of Water, Political Belonging, and Health in Urubamba, Peru
- (link is exterKenny Hubbell (Chemical & Biological Engineering) - Construction of Fusion Lasso Peptides with Pharmaceutically-Relevant Sequences (link is external)
- Melody Qiu (Woodrow Wilson School) - To Push or To Cut? Decision-Making in Childbirth Amid the Brazilian Cesarean Epidemic (link is external)
2015 Thesis Award Winners
Michael Kochis (Molecular Biology) - Characterization of Rotavirus Strains in Ghana Before and After Vaccine Introduction. Download the full thesis.
Pavithra Vijayakumar - (Woodrow Wilson School) Adapting to the ACA: Risk-Assumption Across the Spectrum of Integrated Delivery Systems. Download the full thesis.
Honorable Mentions
- Charles Fortin (East Asian Studies) - Nurturing Life Amidst the Smog: The Air Pollution Experience in Contemporary China
- Emma Glennon (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) - Climate, contact, and cholera: A discrete-time approach to revealing several patterns of Vibrio Cholerae O1 transmission in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Alomi Parikh (Chemistry) - Novel Methods for Patterning Flat and Curved Soft Polymer Surfaces to Direct Cell Growth for Nerve Repair
- Fred Shaykis (Psychology) - Awareness is Power: Promoting Healthy, Mindful Eating for Trenton Middle Schoolers Through an After-School Partnership
2014 Thesis Award Winners
Naomi Zucker (Anthropology) - Visions of Health and Care in Sao Paulo Brazil.
Honorable Mentions
- Sally Butler (English) - "The Puzzle Takes Over": Perceiving Disease in All Its Complexity. Download abstract.
- Seth Forsgren (Molecular Biology) - The Variola Virus: The Threat of Reintroduction and Our Capacity to Respond. Download abstract.
- Prihatha Narasimmaraj (Woodrow Wilson School) - "There Is No Other Food Besides the Breast": Challenges of Infant and Young Child Feeding in Rural Sierra Leone. Download abstract.
- Storm Portner (Anthropology) - Imagining Partnerships: An Ethnography of Community Health Workers in a Global Health Intervention in Sierra Leone. Download abstract.
2013 Thesis Award Winners
Aaron Lin (Molecular Biology) - Proteomic Investigation of the HSV-1 Outer Tegument Protein pUL46: Interactions, Hyper-Phosphorylation, and Regulation by ICP0-Dependent Proteasomal Degradation. Download the full thesis.
Honorable Mentions
- Wynne Callon (Woodrow Wilson School) - Diabetes and China’s Modernization: A Three-City Study of the Perspectives of Patients, Providers and Policymakers. Download abstract.
- Dora Huang (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) - Associations between typhoid mortality and municipal finances of water and sewerage systems in eighteen urban centers in the United States, 1888-1932. Download abstract.
2012 Thesis Award Winners
Download the full thesis.
Joseph Anaya (Chemistry) - Design, Synthesis, and Biological Characterization of Novel Nucleoside Analogs Targeting Dengue Virus and Their Serendipitous Activity Against HCV
Publication is patent-pending.
Honorable Mentions
- Christine Blauvelt (Anthropology) - Economies of Survival: When Global AIDS Interventions Meet Local Communities in Kenya. Download abstract.
- Annette Dekker (Woodrow Wilson School) - “What is Killing Me Most” - Chronic Pain and the Need for Palliative Care in a Rural Community in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Download abstract.
- Caroline Pinke (Anthropology) - An Ethnography of Care: Reclaiming Dignity for Boston’s Chronically Homeless. Download abstract.
- Nisha Rao (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) - Simplifying Surveillance Efforts: Modeling Causes of Heterogeneity in Dengue Fever Risk. Download abstract.
2011 Thesis Award Winners
- Alana D'Alfonso (Psychology) - Seeing the Meaning: Higher-Order Neuroplastic Changes in the Time Scale of Processing within Early Visual Areas in the Congenitally Blind. Download the full thesis.
- Alyse Wheelock (Anthropology) - Maps of Rural Health: An Ethnography of Access to Care in Peru. Download the full thesis.
Honorable Mentions
- Joshua Oppenheimer (Woodrow Wilson School) - A Mexican Model for Insuring The Poor? Download abstract.
- Alex Rosen (Economics) - Hospital Ownership: An Empirical Study of Its Effect on the Quality and Cost of Medical Care in the United States. Download abstract.
- Sarimer Sanchez (History): Medicalizing Birth Control: The enovid Clinical Trials in Puerto Rico (1956-1960). Download abstract.
- John Torrey (Religion): Power Consecrated an Ethnographic Critique of Donor Engagement with Churches and Mosques on Aids in Tanzania. Download abstract.
2010 Thesis Award Winners
- Alex Gertner (Anthropology) - Pharmaceutical Care, Public Experiments, and Patient Knowledge in the Brazilian Public Healthcare System. Download the full thesis.
- Alexa Glencer (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) - Health Impact Assessment in Alaska: General Guidance, Project Application, and Sustainable Mitigation. Download the full thesis.