Human-induced climate change is disrupting nature’s calendar, including when plants bloom and the spring season starts, and new research from the University of School of Public Health suggests we’re increasingly paying the price for it in the form of seasonal allergies.

The Spring 2018 SPH faculty and staff assembly included plenty of great news about school and department-level accomplishments, and laughter and good cheer during the faculty and staff awards.

Dean Boris Lushniak spoke warmly about this being the culmination of the SPH ten-year anniversary celebration, highlighting the various celebrations that happened over the course of the academic year. He noted that the SPH commencement ceremony, happening this Saturday, May 19th, will mark the end of our anniversary year and the start of our second decade. 

The Gamma Zeta chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health is pleased to announce its 2018 inductees. At the induction ceremony and awards reception on May 14, 2018, Dean Boris Lushniak and Principal Associate Dean Dushanka Kleinman inducted 16 students, seven faculty members, five alumni and one honorary member, Mr. Mark Luckner. The ceremony also recognized student research poster winners from each department of the school.

Deirdre Quinn, a fourth-year Family Science doctoral candidate, published an article through the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) on teenage mothers in Washington, DC. While teenage motherhood is associated with many negative outcomes for mothers and their children, teen mothers who live with and receive emotional support from their mothers are able to avoid some of these outcomes. In particular, Deirdre found that teenage mothers’ relationships with their own mothers predict contraceptive use.

Rising Family Science senior Erin Sullivan was recently chosen as a 2017-2018 UMD Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar. This scholar program recognizes the academic excellence of a select few University of Maryland seniors, as well as the instructors these students identify as mentors who had the greatest impact on their academic achievement.

The American Public Health Association's Public Health Newswire recently featured FMSC PhD student Kecia Ellick in their review of 2016 annual meeting poster presentations. Ellick's poster, “Mothers' Attachment Style and Child Behavioral Outcomes for Teen Parent Families” summarized her study of adolescent mothers over a two-year period.

We all know that we can quickly lose cardiovascular endurance if we stop exercising for a few weeks, but what impact does the cessation of exercise have on our brains? New research led by University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers examined cerebral blood flow in healthy, physically fit older adults (ages 50-80 years) before an after a 10-day period during which they stopped all exercise.

Following their release of a state-commissioned study on the potential public health impacts of fracking in Western Maryland, University of Maryland researchers are helping to inform the conversation about the potential risks associated with unconventional natural gas development and production.

Older adults that improved their fitness through a moderate intensity exercise program increased the thickness of their brain’s cortex, the outer layer of the brain that typically atrophies with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the University of Maryland School of Public Health. These effects were found in both healthy older adults and those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease.