Anna Oksuzyan, MD, MPH, PhD, received the 2010 American College of Epidemiology (ACE) Annals of Epidemiology Award for the best manuscript published in 2009. Dr. Oksuzyan is a 2001 graduate of the American University of Armenia’s Master of Public Health (MPH) Program and a former Project Coordinator at AUA’s Center for Health Services Research and Development. This prestigious award was presented at the annual ACE meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA, in September 2010 by Dr. Deborah M. Winn, the Acting Associate Director of the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, US National Institute of Health and the Vice Chair of the ACE Publications Committee.
Oksuzyan et al’s “The male-female health-survival paradox: a survey and register study of the impact of sex-specific selection and information bias” is one of the articles from her PhD dissertation, which she defended at University of Southern Denmark in June 2010, where she remains as a post-doctoral fellow at the Epidemiology Unit in the Institute of Public Health; she also is a guest researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. Dr. Oksuzyan noted, “I was fortunate to study with many promising young public health professionals and researchers while at AUA. AUA played a very important role in my career development by providing me a solid grounding in the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking that opened many opportunities for my further professional growth and continued contribution to advancing the public’s health.”
“As Dr. Oksuzyan’s accomplishments show, it is not by chance that about 10% of our MPH graduates so far have progressed into funded western PhD programs,” noticed Dr. Robert Bagramian, the Dean of the College of Health Sciences and Professor at University of Michigan. Dr. Haroutune Armenian, Professor of Epidemiology at AUA and UCLA, commented, “Awards such as this are but one example of how AUA’s graduates reflect the quality education and hands on experience our academic programs and research centers provide our students.” AUA President, Dr. Bruce Boghosian, congratulated Dr. Oksuzyan on her accomplishment, and indicated his pride at seeing an AUA alumna receive such a prestigious award at such an early stage of her career, adding, “Dr. Oksuzyan is another example of AUA’s success in training its students to succeed in high-level research careers in today’s Globalized World. I am also particularly pleased that Dr. Oksuzyan remains an active participant in the international community of AUA almuni.”