Kai Zhang

Empire Innovation Associate Professor Link

Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies

CAPS Biography:

Kai Zhang, MS, MA, PhD, is an Empire Innovation Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Zhang is the awardee of the SUNY Empire Innovation Program in 2021. Dr. Zhang has a unique interdisciplinary background with a PhD degree in Environmental Health and a MA degree in Statistics at the University of Michigan, and a MS degree and a BS degree in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua and Southeast University in China, respectively. Dr. Zhang’s research interests focus on social and environmental determinants in relation to aging-related diseases, characterizing climate-related exposures, reducing the human health effects associated with disasters, and exploring the role of environmental stressors (air pollution, natural environment, built environment, and social environment) in relation to aging-related diseases. His expertise includes exposure science, air quality, environmental and occupational epidemiology, GIS, statistics, and data science. His current project funded by NIH/NIA (1R01AG081244; Role, MPI)  aims to identify DNA methylation biomarkers associated with life-course social determinants and examine their roles in CVD risk and disparity.

Research interests:

• Social and environmental determinants of aging-related diseases
• Climate change, extreme weather, disasters, and health
• Urban exposome
• State-of-the-art exposure models
• Risk assessment and health impact assessment
• Transportation, air quality and health
• GIS, spatial analysis and data science in public health