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National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
Radiation Epidemiology Branch

Radiation Epidemiology Branch Fellows


Houda Boukheris, MD, Ph.D.

Houda Boukheris Houda Boukheris began at the National Cancer Institute in March 2007 as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education post doctoral fellow under the direction of Rochelle Curtis and Charles Land. She received an M.D. from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Algeria in 1993. For her dissertation, Dr. Boukheris examined the awareness of treatment and control of arterial hypertension among Algerian general practioners according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization. At NCI, her research focuses on late health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation in three main areas: 1) radiation-related risk of subsequent salivary gland carcinoma within the US population, 2) risk of subsequent salivary gland carcinoma among Childhood Cancer Survivors Study, and 3) gynecological outcomes after exposure to low protracted doses of ionizing radiation among US female radiologic technologists. Dr. Boukheris is also collaborating with Dr. Catherine Schairer on a study of risk factors for inflammatory breast cancer in North Africa.

In 2004, Dr. Boukheris was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Her research in France focused on mortality from second cancers and cardiovascular diseases among French breast cancer patients and prognostic factors among patients with thyroid and endocrine tumors. Prior to her work at INSERM, Dr. Boukheris served as an epidemiologist and assistant professor in the University hospital of Oran in Algeria. Her work focused on various aspects of applied epidemiology and public health, including the implementation and the management of programs to prevent infectious diseases including sexually transmitted infections, with the goal to encourage healthy behaviors. While accomplishing her civil service and as an epidemiologist and local coordinator, Dr. Boukheris also had oversight responsibilities that included the development of technical strategies and work plans, and served as the primary liaison between the local departments of public health and the ministry of health to improve access to health care services.

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Vladimir Drozdovitch, Ph.D.

Vladimir Drozdovitch Vladimir Drozdovitch, Ph.D., joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), as a Visiting Fellow in November 2006. Dr. Drozdovitch has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the Institute of Power Engineering and Nuclear Research (Minsk, Belarus). During 2003-2006 he was a scientist in the Radiation Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, where he was responsible for the development and validation of dosimetric models and estimation of doses for the studies of cancer risk following the Chernobyl accident. Dr. Drozdovitch is working with Andre Bouville, Ph.D. in the field of radiation and cancer and will participate in a number of projects related to the evaluation of radiation doses and associated uncertainties.

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Deukwoo Kwon, Ph.D.

Deukwoo Kwon Deukwoo Kwon, Ph.D., has joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a visiting postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Kwon earned a B.A. in economics at Yonsei University in 1994 and a M.B.A. at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2000. Between two periods he worked in an investment trust management company as an investment banker for 4 years in Korea. At that time he was interested in financial engineering such as Black-Scholes option pricing and interest rate derivatives. He received a M.S. in statistics in 2002 and a Ph.D. in statistics in 2005 from Texas A&M University. In his dissertation he applied Bayesian classification method with variable selection to finding biomarkers in prostate cancer using SELDI-TOF MS. Dr. Kwon will work on uncertainty analysis and measurement error models in dose-response relation and genetics study for U.S. radiologic technologists cohort study. His research interests are functional data analysis, longitudinal analysis, and multilevel modeling. Dr. Kwon also tries to develop variable selection with advanced Bayesian computation techniques.

Key Publications:

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Cari Meinhold, M.H.S.

Cari Meinhold Cari Meinhold joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a pre-doctoral fellow while also enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Cancer Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ms. Meinhold received a B.S. in biology and anthropology/zoology from the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor in 2005 and an M.H.S. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Cancer Epidemiology in 2008. For her M.H.S. project she examined the associations of lifestyle factors that predict serum insulin and glucose concentrations with the risk of pancreatic cancer in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Study. Ms. Meinhold is working with Drs. Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, Investigator, REB and Elaine Ron, Senior Investigator, REB to investigate the role of several behavioral, nutritional, and clinical factors in relation to thyroid cancer risk in the U.S. Radiologic Technologists Study and the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. For her doctoral dissertation, Ms. Meinhold will investigate the association of body mass index with thyroid stimulating hormone levels and thyroid cancer risk.

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Sara Schonfeld, M.P.H.

Sara Schonfeld Sara Schonfeld is a pre-doctoral fellow in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) and a doctoral candidate at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. For her dissertation, she is working with Drs. Patricia Hartge, James Lacey, and Ruth Pfeiffer to pool data from four DCEG studies to examine associations between hormonal factors and the risks of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers among postmenopausal, nulliparous women. In addition to her dissertation research, Ms. Schonfeld works with Drs. Elaine Ron and Ethel Gilbert on studies of plutonium-exposed workers at the Mayak Nuclear Facilities and populations residentially exposed to radionuclides contaminating the Techa River in the Ural mountains (Russian Federation) and with Drs. Charles Land, Kiyo Mabuchi, Vladimir Drozdovitch, and other REB investigators on a study of thyroid disease following fallout exposure in Kazakhstan. Ms. Schonfeld received her undergraduate training in Russian Studies from Hamilton College and her Master’s in Public Health from George Washington University.

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Lene Veiga, Ph.D.

Lene Veiga Lene Veiga joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as post-doc fellow in January 2008. Dr. Veiga has been working for the Brazilian Nuclear Authority at the Institute of Radioprotection and Dosimetry since 1987. She received her Ph.D. in 2004 at the National School of Public Health/Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in cancer epidemiology, after conducting the first Brazilian cohort study of miners exposed to radon. Since then, she has been responsible for various studies of cancer risk in relation to environmental and occupational exposure to radiation. She serves as a consultant for the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission to national and international organizations dealing with radiation epidemiology issues. Dr. Veiga is working with Drs. Elaine Ron, Senior Investigator, REB and Jay Lubin, Senior Investigator, Biostatistics Branch on a pooling study on radiation-associated thyroid cancer.

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Chu-Ling Yu, Sc.D.

Chu-Ling Yu Chu-Ling Yu joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB) as a research fellow in 2007. She received her Sc.D. in environmental health from the Harvard School of Public Health with minors in biostatistics and biomarkers. Her dissertation research focused on the relationship between petrochemical exposure and childhood cancers in southern Taiwan, using an innovative approach identifying the geographic exposure areas for petrochemicals by incorporating the geographic information systems (GIS).

During her fellowship at REB, Dr. Yu has the opportunity to work with several leaders in radiation epidemiology in order to pursue her research interest in second cancers and exposure assessment. She has published papers on second malignant neoplasms following retinoblastoma (PI: Ruth Kleinerman), and on epidemiologic methods to improve the questionnaire assessment of cumulative sun exposure (PI: Martha Linet). Other ongoing projects include an epidemiologic methods study that evaluates the impact of laboratory practices and 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations (PI: Michal Freedman); genetic polymorphisms, smoking, and breast cancer risk (PI: Alice Sigurdson); second primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after radiotherapy for the first primary cancer (PI: Michal Freedman); and residential exposure to agricultural chemicals and the risk of hematopoietic and lymphoid neoplasms using GIS for exposure assessment (PI: Mary Ward).

At REB, Dr. Yu appreciates the international nature of the branch, as well as the availability of outstanding researchers and the accessibility to various resources.

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