MS Environmental Health students, Nana-Obaayaa Owusu and Jordan Williams, are selected as 2022 Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP) Student Research Competition (SRC) winners for their individual research projects. Nana’s research involved investigating the solar ultraviolet radiation exposure in outdoor working environment during cold months, with Dr. Jo Anne Balanay serving as her faculty preceptor. Jordan’s research addressed nosocomial or hospital acquired infections (HAIs) with novel antimicrobial, with Dr. Lok Pokhrel serving as her faculty preceptor. AEHAP sponsors this national Student Research Competition (SRC) to highlight important environmental health research being conducted by students enrolled in National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council (EHAC) accredited environmental health degree programs.

Of the 18 eligible SRC submissions for the 2022 competition, Nana and Jordan are 2 of the 4 selected SRC winners. Each of them will present the results of their research at 2 events: 1) virtual AEHAP Student Symposium to be held on May 10, 2022, and 2) the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) Annual Educational Conference in Spokane, Washington on June 28 – July 1, 2022. As SRC winners, each will be given a $1,000 award and their travel and meeting expenses (including hotel accommodation, transportation, conference registration, and meals) up to a maximum of $1,000 will be covered.  Nana and Jordan will give oral and/or poster presentations at the conferences titled, “Solar Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure in Outdoor Working Environment during Cold Months” and “Mitigating Nosocomial Infections with Surface Functionalized Nano-antibacterial Agent”, respectively.  This is the 8th year that a graduate student from our MS Environmental Health (MSEH) Program won this award. Moreover, this is the 1st year that 2 of our MSEH students were given this award in the same year. Congratulations, Nana and Jordan!