Faculty Garner Honors and Recognition

SUNY Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Jo L. Freudenheim, PhD, MS, RD, has been selected as a member of the American Society for Nutrition Foundation (ASN) Class of 2023 Fellows. Since 1928, ASN members have built on nutrition science-based information and practice, provided education and professional development and science policy and advocacy. The society’s highest honor recognizes Freudenheim’s distinguished career in advancing the field of nutrition and improving health around the world. “The fellows of ASN are an enormously distinguished group of nutrition scientists. It is an honor to be included in that group,” Freudenheim said.

Kasia Kordas, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, received the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award to study and teach abroad at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. Kordas spent the recent fall semester at the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, an internationally recognized center in environmental chemistry and toxicology at Masaryk University. Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Scholarship Program is considered to be one of the most esteemed scholarship programs in the world. Some 8,000 grants are given each year to top students and scholars by the U.S. Department of State to improve intercultural relations, diplomacy and competence between the people of the U.S. and other nations through educational exchange.

John M. Violanti, PhD, research professor of epidemiology and environmental health in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and retired member of the New York State Police, served on a planning committee of experts convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. They were tasked with examining approaches for improving the measurement of death by suicide in the law enforcement occupation. “Considering recent issues with mental health in the U.S. and the increased risk of suicide among those who work in law enforcement and in the military, it became necessary to assess the scope of this public health problem among first responders,” Violanti said.