University of Michigan School of Public Health

Rick Neitzel, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan tells The New York Times that the crux of the problem for residents who live near data centers that emit a constant low-frequency vibration is that with many traditional community noise sources — like airports and freeways — the noise levels tend to die out or decrease at night. Not so with data centers.

The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers (Gift Article) As tech giants rush to build infrastructure, some residents who live near data centers say a constant low-frequency vibration is ruining their health and homes.

Exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in many w**d killers, was linked to changes in several hormones that support pregnancy and fetal development—in one of the few studies to examine how a widely used herbicide may affect the body during pregnancy. The results come from a new study led by University of Michigan School of Public Health researchers.

Read more at the link in our comments ⬇️

“When Michigan came up, it offered the perfect combination: elite athletics and elite academics.”

For Michigan wrestler and epidemiology master’s student Josh Knudten, that combination has shaped his path from the mat to the lab. With dreams of contributing to gene therapy and biopharma, Josh is focused on making a difference for patients and families through public health.

Learn how he balances wrestling, graduate school, and big ambitions in Findings: link in the comment section below!

Michigan Wrestling

Raksha Rajeshmohan is a masters student studying global health epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. While she worked for the Botswana Harvard Health Partnership, she championed the inclusion of pregnant adolescents in research. Raksha will continue to exercise her knowledge and passion for maternal and child health at the Grenada Red Cross Society on a CEW+ Fellowship. After graduation, Raksha hopes to work for a global health non-profit organization to develop integrated health systems in low and middle-income countries. CEW+ applauds Raksha for her work in the field of public health and names her a Simson Family Graduate Fellowship Fellow.

Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Devon Payne-Sturges recently participated in the Michigan Road Scholar Tour, an annual five-day traveling seminar funded by the U-M Office of the Provost that takes faculty across the state to learn firsthand about Michigan's economy, government, culture, health and social issues, and communities. Designed to strengthen ties between the university and the people it serves, the program introduces faculty to the places most U-M students call home and surfaces ways research and scholarship can address real state needs.

The tour spanned more than a dozen stops across the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. In Detroit, Payne-Sturges visited Focus: HOPE, a nonprofit fighting poverty through food access, early childhood education, and workforce development that serves tens of thousands of seniors across 18 counties. A meeting with Tribal Council members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians surfaced research and program evaluation needs in housing, youth outreach, grant capacity, and community development that Payne-Sturges hopes can become the foundation for future partnerships with Michigan Public Health. In Lansing, the group learned about the Michigan Department of Education's Indigenous Education Initiative and their "Step Into Our Stories" curriculum—12 years in the making, developed with elders, youth, educators, and artists from tribal nations across Michigan—a reminder, as Payne-Sturges noted, that the Anishinaabek are here, still living and working and sharing land with the state.

"I hope to find ways for the School of Public Health to follow up and create partnerships with the tribal council," she wrote. "Michigan Road Scholars are really becoming a close group."

Read more about her trip: https://myumi.ch/jVwqZ

We talk a lot about mentorship in academia. We talk less about the power of peer relationships — the colleagues who sit alongside you, challenge your thinking and make your work measurably better over time.

Dr. Paul Fleming and Dr. Bill Lopez at the University of Michigan School of Public Health have that kind of relationship. For years, they've pushed each other to ask harder questions, engage more deeply with communities and resist the pull toward safe, unchallenging scholarship.

Their new books — Imagine Doing Better and Raiding the Heartland — are partly a product of that dynamic. And their recent joint conversation for the "Libros at Lunchtime" series was a rare public window into what sustained, honest intellectual friendship actually looks like in practice.

For anyone building a career in research, public health or advocacy: find your Fleming. Find your Lopez. The work will be better for it.

🔗 Read the Findings article - link in the comments below

Meet Owen Chun: public health student, microbiology major, CDC John R. Lewis Scholar, CURIS president, research assistant…and Star Wars Fan Club president. 🌟

Owen’s journey began at a food bank during COVID-19, where he saw how food insecurity connects to broader social determinants of health. Now, he’s using science, advocacy and community engagement to make an impact at Michigan and beyond.

May the Force of public health be with him. Read Owen’s story at the link in the comments below

The loss of places outside the home and office where people can connect may make sustaining social interactions harder, especially for older adults, said Philippa Clarke, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, who has researched social spaces. Read in the AP

In Iowa, water pollution is a health threat that also disrupts summer fun Iowa’s waterways face significant pollution challenges due to agricultural runoff and sewage. The problem impacts both recreation and public health.

How alumna Candice Ammori, MS ’20, pivoted from finance and AI ethics to climate entrepreneurship. She founded Climate Vine, a selective community connecting climate professionals across policy, investment, tech and science. Her biostatistics training powers matchmaking algorithms and multidisciplinary climate innovation.

Read more: https://myumi.ch/xjQdb