Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D., to lead COPH research effort

Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D.

Mohammad Siahpush, Ph.D., professor of health promotion, social and behavioral health, has been named the new associate dean for research in the College of Public Health effective Jan. 1.

The appointment follows the resignation of Jim Anderson, Ph.D., associate dean for research and professor of biostatistics, who has been at UNMC for 24 years. Dr. Anderson will continue his faculty appointment until March 1, 2014.

Dr. Siahpush, who has been at UNMC since 2007, is best known for his research in human behavior, particularly with smoking cessation. He examines characteristics of individuals as well as characteristics of the environments where people live.

While his main research focus is on tobacco control, he has numerous publications on obesity, physical activity, cervical/breast cancer screening, happiness and disparities in mortality.

With 10 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Siahpush has been an investigator for $32 million of competitive research grants. He has published 112 articles (64 as first author) in peer-reviewed journals, 20 book chapters/reports and 108 conference presentations.

Interim dean Jane Meza, Ph.D., said: “Dr. Siahpush’s strong research experience and his ideas for faculty research development will help us grow our research portfolio in the College of Public Health.”