CHIP Doctoral Student Abhishek(Abhi) Bhatia is more than deserving of a newsletter student spotlight as we finish up the current academic year! In the month of April, Abhi presented at the UNC Sustainability Research Symposium hosted by Sustainable Carolina, part of the UNC Institute for the Environment. In addition to his Doctoral student role with CHIP, he is a Research Scientist with CrisisReady. Bhatia’s research combines large-scale clinical, demographic and geospatial data to estimate the impact of climate disasters on population displacement and health. At the symposium, Bhatia presented his findings from post-disaster impact assessments from a case study in Kerala, India. Prior to this, his research at Harvard University quantified the public health impact of humanitarian crises, primarily in the context of the War in Syria, and the Rohingya Refugee Crisis. See his full presentation at the symposium linked below.
Bhatia also participated in the 2024 Population Association of America Annual Meeting in Columbus, Ohio in April. He gave both an oral and poster presentation on his research titled "Effectiveness of Early Warnings on Household Evaluation during the 2018 Floods in Kerala, India".
In addition to Bhatia's fascinating and impactful public health research, he has stood out this academic year as a strong advocate, supporter, and participant in CHIP. He has engaged in summer programming, acting as a Teaching Assistant for DataAware 2023, helping to teach high school students about the health informatics field. He will also be a Teaching Assistant for the ENABLE summer 2024 program, teaching undergraduate students all about health informatics. Bhatia has been involved with CHIP in many other ways including as a presenter at the fall 2023 CHIP faculty retreat, co-chair of the CHIP Doctoral student committee, and acting as a visible and available presence for current CHIP students with a need for questions and connection. His inquisitiveness, participation and commitment have truly made a positive impact on the culture of the CHIP program.
