IPPH is committed to supporting a new generation of population and public health researchers committed to research and its application. This section includes various resources designed to help you throughout your career path.

If you have any comments or other useful links that would help us better respond to your needs, please email kim.gaudreau@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

Career Awards

• Post doctoral program in Health: Statistics Canada

Training Opportunities 

• 2010 IPPH Summer Student Employment Opportunity
• Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR). For more information, we recommend that you contact the principal investigator of the relevant STIHR. 
  • Background
  • STIHRs listed by province(s) of principal investigator(s)
• Centres for Research Development
• External training opportunities

Networking and Capacity Building

• IPPH/IHSPR Annual Summer Institute
• Global Health Summer Institute
• Public Health Student Forum - a free, interactive web-space that brings together students from all disciplines to meet, discuss and explore public health issues

Other Funding Opportunities

• IPPH Current Funding Opportunities
• IPPH Archived Funding Opportunities
• Funding Decisions

Recognizing Student Excellence

• Population and Public Health Student Awards & Dr. John Hastings CPHA Student Award 
   
  • Past winners:
    • 2008
    • 2007
    • 2006
    • 2005
    • 2004

Profiles of PPH Students

• Amy Prisniak: Scholarship winner from Simon Fraser University passionate about fighting childhood obesity
• Chantelle Richmond, The Contribution of the Geographer for Understanding Aboriginal Health
• Colleen M. Davison, Bottleneck Engineers for Health Investments
• Véronic Ouellette, PhD Student, Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia, and Student Representative, Board of The Canadian Coalition for Global Health  Research
• Randy Fransoo, PhD Candidate in Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba

Useful Links

• Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA)
• Become a student member of the CPHA!

For more information, please contact:

Kim Gaudreau
Associate, Strategic Initiatives
Tel: 613-957-6128
Fax: 613-954-1800
kgaudreau@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

2004 Inaugural PPH Student Award Winners

The purpose of this award program is to recognize excellence in the next generation of PPH researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

Sarah Viehbeck is recipient of the Masters level PPH Award Winner for her study "An Examination of the Relationship between Municipal Smoke-free Bylaws and Smoking Cessation". "I feel very fortunate to have been recognized through the CIHR-IPPH/CPHA/CPHI-CPHI Student Awards program. Being afforded the opportunity to share my research findings at a national conference and also to be so warmly welcomed by members of the public health community was a truly wonderful experience. I see the Population and Public Health Student Award, as well as my participation in the Canadian Public Health Association conference, as two potential tools to broaden my understanding of population health issues at the national level and also as an avenue to meet members of the community that I hope to one day be a part of. It is an important tool in building capacity among the next generation of public health researchers."

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of municipal smoke-free bylaws on smoking cessation. Specifically, data from Statistics Canada's Community Health Survey has been analyzed to determine the odds that a smoker has quit in communities that have strong municipal smoke-free bylaws, compared to those communities that have no bylaw. The analysis took into consideration the potential interaction between individual and community level characteristics.

Sharon Yanicki is recipient of the Masters Level PPH Award Winner for her study "Social Support and Family Strength: How do Low-income Single Mothers View Support Received from a Home Visitation Program?" "The award provided significant assistance by covering the cost of travel and expenses related to the CPHA Conference. I certainly enjoyed Newfoundland, the conference and the opportunity to hear some excellent presentations. As a new researcher, it was very encouraging to have this support."

This study sought to increase understanding of the perspective of lone-mother families, and to describe the context of home visitation in relation to their broader social support networks. Utilizing a combination of semi-structured interviews and clinical tools, mothers in this study described perceived relationships between support and family strengths within their households. Completed within southwest Alberta in 2003, this study provides insights for practice (home visitation and formal social support strategies) and raises issues for program evaluation. The family strengths focus of this study identifies opportunities for supporting positive outcomes within this population.

Jena Webb is recipient of the Masters' Level PPH Award Winner for her study "The Use of the Ecosystem Approach to Population Health: The Case of Mercury Contamination in Aquatic Environments and Riparian Populations, Andean Amazon, Napo River Valley, Ecuador". "I specialize in international health, but intend on using my expertise in Canada someday, so I was very interested to hear the complications and concerns of public health researchers doing work here."

Adopting the Ecosystem Approach to Human Health, this research looks into the complex relationships between the geochemical factors defining the physical environment, the socio-politico-economic pressures shaping deforestation practices, population health and public health policy, as well as the cultural determinants which influence diet, nutrition and well-being. This study is distinctive in that it is complemented by another study in the same region which looks at the impacts on population health can be linked directly to the source, deforestation, providing concrete evidence of the public health risks associated with felling forests.

Alice Chen, recipient of the PhD Level PPH Award Winner for her study "Utilization of Mental Health Services by Chinese Immigrants in British Columbia". "For me, the student award is an affirmation of the importance of my research interest and recognition of the need to understand more about diversity in health services."

The aim of this thesis project is to research the rates and determinants of mental health service utilization of Chinese immigrants in British Columbia using historic administrative databases. A total of more that 150,000 immigrants from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, who landed in B.C. between 1985 and 2000, were identified from an immigration database which was linked to the province's administrative health records, as part of a national study on immigrant health. Controls were randomly selected from the general B.C. population and individually matched to immigrants by sex, age and region. Preliminary results confirm that, while Chinese immigrants use less formal health care overall that controls, the difference in utilization is particularly profound for mental health problems. Moreover, this gap remains over the study period. The under-utilization of mental health services may indicate better health status or ongoing barriers to access. Determinants of utilization, such as education and English ability, will shed light on the factors affecting utilization.