Rollins researchers receive IBM grant to study impact of climate change on health

Researchers at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health have received one of IBM's Climate Change and Environmental grants, which provide technology resources to assist research on climate change and environmental issues.

Howard Chang, PhD, and Yang Liu, PhD, both associate professors of biostatistics, were selected from a pool of more than 70 applicants for their project aimed at examining the impact of climate change on temperature and air pollution on human health at the local level.   

“This work represents a wonderful example of the strength of scientific collaboration linking the power of modern computing, environmental health sciences, biostatistics and high-resolution satellite data to address pressing public health problems in creative and thoughtful ways," says Lance Waller, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics. "We look forward to important, policy-relevant results based on cutting-edge science.”

Through the grant, the researchers will receive one or more of IBM's technology resources, which include supercomputing power through the World Community Grid, weather data from The Weather Company or data storage from IBM Cloud. This grant builds upon IBM's decades-long commitment to environmental stewardship. In return for IBM's support, the researchers will publicly release their data, enabling the global community to benefit from their findings.

To learn more about this grant and IBM's technology resources, visit: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/climate.action