News | School of Public Health

August 17, 2026 Positive social media posts may normalize nicotine pouch use among youth A Pitt Public Health study analyzed 1,809 Instagram and TikTok posts containing the hashtag #Zyn to better understand the messages users encounter about nicotine pouches. ... Pitt Public Health researchers study alcohol-cancer risk communication ... August 17, 2026 Wu receives NIH R01 grant to study brain aging in severe mental illness Qiong Wu, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics and health data science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, has received an R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health — part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health — to develop new statistical methods for studying brain aging in people with severe mental illness. ... The School of Public Health is expanding its curriculum with four new innovative courses. ... Ding receives R35 grant to advance statistical and machine learning methodology for biomedical and public health research Ying Ding, PhD, a professor of biostatistics and health data science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, has received a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (R35 MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. ... Pitt Public Health faculty and students presented research addressing environmental health challenges and solutions at the 2026 National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) Annual Educational Conference, one of the nation's largest gatherings of environmental health professionals.