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Organizers

The summer short course is being organized in collaboration between the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL. Between them, these research groups have made seminal contributions to understanding links between positive mental well-being and physical health.

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The Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London is dedicated to research on how human behaviour impacts health and health outcomes. It is an interdisciplinary academic department involving specialists in health psychology, epidemiology, public health, genetics, nutrition, exercise science, clinical medicine and aging. The primary focus is on health behaviours (tobacco use, alcohol, physical activity, diet), social factors and psychobiological processes relevant to cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cognitive decline. Research in the Department relates to prevention, early detection of long-term conditions, and the support of people with illnesses such as cancer and dementia. Together with the closely linked Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, the Department houses key longitudinal population cohort studies such as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Whitehall II study.

 

Work on mental health well-being and physical health has been an emerging focus of research over the past 15 years. This has included epidemiological research into associations between different aspects of positive mental well-being and mortality, healthy life expectancy and disability, studies of the biological and behavioural processes linking mental well-being with physical disease risk, and intervention studies. UCL provides a complementary perspective to the Harvard group on this field of emerging importance.

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The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. School of Public Health seeks to understand and intervene on the social determinants of health and health equity across the life-course. This is achieved through research identifying the social and behavioral determinants of health, development and evaluation of interventions and policies leading to the improvement of population health, and the preparation of professionals and researchers who will fill leadership positions in advocacy and public service. The department’s educational mission is to train both scholars and practitioners: scholars whose research will illuminate basic social determinants of health and who will identify and test innovative social policy and service interventions; practitioners who are skilled in designing, implementing, and evaluating health-enhancing interventions in action settings.

Recently, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health identified the promotion of well-being as one of its key frontiers of focus. This new course highlights the importance of identifying new ways to measure and foster well-being, encouraging participants to explore and define the linkages between health and how we feel, interact, and live.

         Statement from the Deans of UCL and

       Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health 

On behalf of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and University College London, we are delighted to support the launch of this new joint teaching initiative exploring the links between emotional well-being and population health. Psychosocial factors play a role in many of the leading causes of death around the world. While much attention has been paid to understanding how psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) contributes to disease development, work pioneered by leading researchers at our institutions has shown that positive emotional well-being may uniquely contribute to maintaining good health and increasing longevity. This short course is designed to bring faculty from our institutions together to introduce the next generation of scholars to the cutting-edge science that sits at the nexus of epidemiology, social science, psychology, and medicine with the goal of stimulating novel, interdisciplinary work that supports a healthier tomorrow for generations to come.

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Ibrahim Abubakar, Dean, Faculty of Population Health Sciences, UCL

Michelle A. Williams, Dean,

Harvard T.H. Chan School

of Public Health

Graham Hart, Dean, Faculty of Population Health Sciences, UCL

Michelle A. Williams, Dean,

Harvard T.H. Chan School

of Public Health

COURSE LEADERS

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Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology

Behavioural Science and Health

University College London

 

Andrew Steptoe is Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL, and Director of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. He also directs the psychobiology research group at UCL. He was appointed British Heart Foundation professor of psychology at UCL from 2000-2016, and also served as Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care from 2011-2017. He is a Past-President of the International Society of Behavioral Medicine and is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Psychological Society, Academia Europaea, and the Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include psychosocial aspects of aging, links between mental and physical health, childhood obesity, health behaviour change, and the psychobiology of stress.

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Professor of Social and Behavioral Science

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Laura Kubzansky is professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Society and Health Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also serves as co-director of the JPB Environmental Health Fellowship Program. Dr. Kubzansky has published extensively on the role of psychologi­cal and social factors in health. She also conducts research on whether stress, emotion, and other psychological factors help to explain the relationship between social status and health. Other research projects and interests, include a) biological mechanisms linking emotions, social rela­tionships, and health; b) relationships between early childhood environments, resilience, and healthy aging; and; c) how psychosocial stress or assets may interact with toxic envi­ronmental exposures (e.g., lead, air pollution) to influence health.

2022 TEACHING FACULTY

2023 Faculty will be announced soon...

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