Nov 27, 2006

Two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty – an epidemiologist studying adverse birth outcomes and a scholar of American cultural engagement with Islam – have been named 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholars.

Dr. Jay Kaufman and Dr. Timothy Marr will travel to Chile and Cyprus, respectively, to lecture and conduct research, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), which manages the Fulbright Scholars program, announced recently. Six professors from abroad will come to UNC as part of the same program.

Kaufman, associate professor of epidemiology in UNC’s School of Public Health, will lecture on social epidemiology of birth outcomes and advanced epidemiologic methods at the University of Chile in Santiago, with which the School of Public Health has a long-standing relationship. His five-month stint begins in March.

In North Carolina, Kaufman studies health disparities. In Chile he will conduct similar research, linking census data about social conditions to adverse birth events, such as early delivery and low-birth weight babies.

“Chile has pretty good prenatal care,” Kaufman said, “but they have a big disparity in adverse events between kids in the minority indigenous population and the majority white population. It makes a nice comparison to North Carolina, where 8 percent of whites and about 16 percent of African Americans deliver preterm.”

To read the entire news release, click here:

http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov06/fulbright112206.htm