Past Health and Environment Highlights
2011 RESEARCH EFFORTS BY LOCAL UNIVERSITY EPIDEMIOLOGISTS
In November, 2010, Dr. Edward Fitzgerald, an environmental epidemiologist, and another professor of epidemiology from the School of Public Health, Michael Bloom, traveled to Tula to provide a series of lectures for students at Tula State University’s Medical Institute. This course introduced students to key concepts of modern epidemiology and how they can be used to study human exposure to hazardous agents in the environment and the workplace. While there, both Professors Fitzgerald and Bloom were invited to participate in an international scientific conference entitled “Population Health: Professional and Ecological Risks.” The visit led to a plan to create a collaborative research project in 2011.
>>>Read Dr. Fitzgerald’s account of this important visit.
2010 DELEGATION FROM TSU MEET ALBANY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
From March 22 to 28, 2010, the Albany Tula Alliance hosted Alexander Khrupachev, a Professor in the Medical Institute of Tula State University for meetings with the University at Albany’s School of Public Health and Atmospheric Sciences Research institute, and the New York State Health Department’s Division of Environmental Health and the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research. Professor Khrupachev was accompanied on the trip by interpreter Katya Filatova.
Professor Alexander Khrupachev (far right) and his delegation from Tula State University at a dinner hosted at the home of Charlotte and Charles Buchanan in March 2010
Professor Khrupachev’s visit was just one step in an ongoing effort between the sister cities to exchange research and best practices on measuring the impact of poor air quality on the population. Professor Khrupachev’s research is related to the physical and chemical transformation of air pollutants and the impact of these pollutants on human health in the Tula Region. The scientists he met with here provided a number of new contacts related to his research and offered opportunities for further exchanges.
University of Albany President George Philip and Professor Alexander Khrupachev of Albany Tula Alliance at signing of Memorandum of Understanding. In background from right to left: Gerald Shaye, Chair of Albany Tula Alliance, Philip Nasca, Dean of School of Public Health at UAlbany, and Carol Whittaker, Assistant Dean for Global Public Health, UAlbany. Dr. Khrupachev’s interpreter is on far left.
It was also during this visit that a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize this partnership was signed. This document to promote collaborative research and on-going exchanges of faculty and students was signed by Mikhail V. Gryazev, Rector of Tula State University, and George Philip, President of the University at Albany.
2009 ALBANY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DELEGATION VISIT TULA
A year earlier, in the spring of 2009, University at Albany School of Public Health Dean Philip Nasca and Carol Whittaker, Director of the Center for Global Health, and Edward Fitzgerald, Chair of the Depart¬ment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics had traveled to Tula to meet with Tula State University educators interested in environmental health issues. Both Nasca and Whittaker are members of the ATA Board of Directors and serve as co-chairs of the Alliance’s Health and En¬vironment Committee. Some of the most fruitful discussions during the visit to Tula State University were with Professor Khadartsev, Director of the Medical Institute and Head of Internal Diseases, and Professor Khrupachev, who have conducted studies using sophisticated mapping techniques to dem¬onstrate the plume of industrial pollution from specific industries in Tula. The modeling techniques used by the Russian research team were of great interest to the Albany delegation.