Dr. Lee’s research focuses on improving inclusivity of research data through addressing sampling and measurement issues in data collection with linguistic and racial minorities as well as hard-to-reach and older populations and cross-cultural survey methodology.
My current research interests include the implications of measurement error in auxiliary variables and survey paradata for survey estimation, selection bias in surveys, responsive/adaptive survey design, and interviewer effects in national studies, including those focused on older populations. I also have expertise in multilevel methods for clustered and longitudinal data.
Dr. Meier’s research focuses on biosocial approaches to health inequalities and aging. She uses a life course framework to understand the molecular pathways by which social and environmental exposures occurring throughout life get “under the skin” to affect adult and later life health.
Dr. Kobayashi studies the social epidemiology of cognitive aging and health equity among low-income older populations. Her current research focuses on life course determinants of cognitive aging in rural South Africa and the population health implications of improving cancer survival rates in the U.S.
Dr. Zhao’s work spans several areas of genomic epidemiology, including gene discovery, gene-environment interaction, epigenomics, transcriptomics, mitochondrial genomics, and risk prediction.
Dr. Weir’s research interests include the measurement of health-related quality of life; the use of cost-effectiveness measures in health policy and medical decision-making; the role of supplemental health insurance in the Medicare population; the effects of health, gender, and marital status on economic well-being in retirement; and the effects of early-life experience on longevity and health at older ages. He has directed the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) since 2007 and organizes MiCDA’s HRS Partner Studies Network.
Dr. Sonnega conducts research on the social contextual determinants of work, health and well-being within a multidisciplinary life course. Her current work examines both health and work with a goal of informing policies that can positively affect both.
Dr. Smith studies genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of age-related chronic disease and its risk factors. Her recent research investigates the interaction between genetic risk and socioeconomic risk factors as determinants of chronic disease phenotypes, particularly those that lead to disparities in health.
Dr. Smith applies life course/lifespan theory to the study of health and well-being in late life. Much of her research focuses on tracing life course predictors and pathways of different trajectories of functional maintenance, change, and survival. She serves as a co-investigator on the Health and Retirement Study.
Dr. Shapiro’s interests focus on integrating administrative data measurements to study late-life processes, including savings and retirement, health and long-term care behaviors. His research activities have focused on creating new data resources and using household-level and business-level data to address questions concerning macroeconomics, finance, saving, retirement, health, and long-term care.