YEREVAN, Armenia – Kristina Akopyan (MPH ’13), alumna of the American University of Armenia (AUA) Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian School of Public Health (SPH), has been awarded a scholarship to conduct a research project that aims to facilitate automatization of characteristics measurement in liver imaging in two-point Dixon and Multi-echo Dixon MRI sequencing techniques. The study team includes researchers and radiologists from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (DIR) at Heidelberg University Medical Center and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).
The DAAD is the world’s largest funding organization for the international exchange of students and researchers. It awards merit-based, competitive grants for study or research at accredited German Institutions, such as Heidelberg University Medical Center. The University of Heidelberg is Germany’s oldest university and one of the strongest research institutions in Europe. Eleven professors of Heidelberg University have been awarded a Nobel Prize since the award has been established.
Dr. Akopyan’s educational background also includes an MD degree from Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU) and residency in diagnostic radiology at the National Institute of Health (NIH) of Armenia. She was a recipient of the NIH academic scholarship and Doumanian Academic Scholarship during her MPH studies at AUA SPH. After graduating from the MPH program, Dr. Akopyan worked as a research assistant, then as a research associate for four years at the Zvart Avedisian Onanian Center for Health Services Research and Development (CHSR) within the SPH. While at AUA, she held the position of Human Protections Administrator of the AUA Institutional Review Board (IRB). Currently, she is the Vice Chair of the IRB #1. She also worked as a project coordinator and research consultant at the National Tuberculosis Control Center of Armenia and as a clinical research associate at DarmanTest Laboratories.
The AUA Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian School of Public Health works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of public health professionals to be leaders in public health, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.