Suzanne Bevan

What sparked your decision to become an epidemiologist? While studying for my master’s degree in environmental health and exploring my research direction in Taiwan, I was drawn into how environmental factors and lifestyles can affect health and disease outcomes. Encouraged by my advisor at the time, Dr. Fung-Chang Sung, who is a remarkable environmental epidemiologist and an excellent mentor, I applied for the PhD programs in Epidemiology in the U.S. and decided to be an epidemiologist as my career. What do you see as the biggest obstacle facing epidemiologists in the next five years? The biggest obstacle facing epidemiologists has always been the competition for funding resources. Recently, on top of misinformation and attack on science during COVID-19 pandemic, actions by the administration have sent shock waves through our research community. In the next five years, not only will the financial support in scientific research be even more difficult to obtain, but we will also face uphill challenges to preserve science, to protect our values, to gain public trust, to advocate our work, and to cultivate the next generation of epidemiologists. Do you have any pets? Losing our German Shapard a few years ago was devastating. We are still thinking […]