Benjamin Anderson, assistant professor of global health, was among five recipients of this year’s Faculty Scholarship and Travel Awards
Duke Kunshan University has announced five full-time faculty members who will receive this year’s Faculty Scholarship and Travel Awards (FSTA).
The annual awards are funded by the Office of Academic Affairs and support faculty members in covering the costs of scholarship projects and conference-related travel expenses.
‘The recipients were selected from a pool of outstanding applications. The review committee had a very difficult task this year,’ said Katherine Robertson, director of faculty affairs at Duke Kunshan. ‘The quality of the proposals demonstrates the strong commitment our faculty members have toward their scholarship as well as to sharing their knowledge with audiences around the world.’
This year’s recipients are:
Benjamin Anderson, assistant professor of global health
He has received an FSTA to support a project called Epidemiological Surveillance of Enteroviruses (EV) among a Pediatric Population at a Clinical Setting in Jakarta, Indonesia. Using nasal swabs combined with polymerase chain reaction, the research aims to identify risk factors associated with EV infections, as well as identify and characterize EVs using molecular detection and sequencing techniques. The project will be largely carried out by Sankalpa Bhattarai, a graduate student in the master of science in global health program, under Anderson’s supervision. Anderson joined Duke Kunshan in 2017 and has a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Florida.
Emily McWilliams, assistant professor of philosophy
Emily McWilliams, assistant professor of philosophy
She received an FSTA to cover the cost of traveling to the fifth Biannual Mentoring Workshop for Pre-Tenure Women in Philosophy, where she gave a presentation entitled ‘What is testimonial withdraw? Why does it matter?’ The workshop was held in Boston, the United States, in late June. McWilliams joined Duke Kunshan in 2017 and has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Tulane University, Los Angeles.
David Huang, professor of medical physics
David Huang, professor of medical physics
He has received an FSTA to cover the costs of traveling to the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago, U.S. At the meeting, to be held in September, he will present a poster entitled ‘A precise proton range telescope in proton therapy.’ Huang joined Duke Kunshan in 2014 and has a Ph.D. in particle physics from Temple University.
Benjamin Schupmann, assistant professor of political science
Benjamin Schupmann, assistant professor of political science
He received an FSTA to cover the cost of traveling to the American Political Science Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., in August. He has been invited to give a plenary panel presentation entitled ‘Overview of a Theory of Constrained Democracy.’ Schupmann joined Duke Kunshan in 2017 and has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.
Qian Long, assistant professor of global health
Qian Long, assistant professor of global health
Her FSTA will support her and several student research assistants in collecting field data for a project focused on adaptive design to reduce unnecessary C-sections in China. The project aims to address several questions: What factors underpin a woman’s decision to have a C-section in specific local contexts; what challenges hinder the abilities of health care professionals to reduce unnecessary C-sections; and what are acceptable interventions to mitigate the unnecessary use of a C-section?
The study will be conducted in Hangzhou, a developed region in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, and Chongqing, a less-developed western region. The team will use the sixth National Household Health Services database to investigate C-section rates and demographic factors nationally and across the study regions, as well as carry out interviews and focus groups with maternity care providers and pregnant women. Long, who joined Duke Kunshan in 2017, has an M.D. from Chongqing University and a doctor of medical science from the University of Helsinki, Finland.
