Alyson Harding, a PhD candidate in the Occupational Injury Prevention (OIP) program, attended the 34th Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) in Athens, Greece, September 18-21, 2022.

The 2022 conference was the first in-person Conference after two years of fully on-line Conferences (2020, 2021).  The theme was “Strengthening the global role of environmental epidemiology”, stressing the need to study and understand local conditions in order to synthesize the knowledge and make a difference for our Planet.

Alyson presented her research poster, “Trends in Wildfires Caused by Electrical Power and the Use of Public Safety Power Shutoffs in California”.

Alyson recently shared her thoughts on the experience…

ISEE 2022

Alyson Harding
PhD Candidate – OIP Program

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had not had the opportunity to attend a conference in person before this summer. I was fortunate to attend the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology conference in Athens, Greece in September of this year.  Jesse Berman, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, encouraged me to attend.

ISEE was smaller and more specific than some other conferences, such as APHA. Because of that, I was interested in the majority of the sessions, posters, and speakers, and the networking felt very valuable.

The content of the conference was engaging and relevant to my work. It was great to hear about so much ongoing research across the field of environmental epidemiology. I learned not only what research is being conducted, but where it is ongoing, who is pursuing this research, and what methods are being used.

The networking at the conference was amazing. There were so many environmental epidemiology celebrities – I felt like a middle school girl at a Justin Bieber concert! I recognized so many experts and leaders in the field from papers I’ve read and cited over the years. It was great to meet other students and early career professionals, as well.  It was an incredible opportunity!

Allison shared updates from the conference via Twitter:

Fantastic first day of #ISEE2022 full of incredible speakers and presentations! pic.twitter.com/CwnCMUuXK6

— Alyson Harding, MPH (@AB_Harding) September 19, 2022

How is it possible that each day of #ISEE2022 was better than the last?! pic.twitter.com/6vFMppDhNp

— Alyson Harding, MPH (@AB_Harding) September 21, 2022

Worth waking up early for! #ISEE2022 pic.twitter.com/vKLMebpR9Z

— Alyson Harding, MPH (@AB_Harding) September 21, 2022

Congratulations, and great work, Alyson! Everyone at MCOHS is proud of your work and accomplishments!