The Vietnam Health and Aging Study Team
About Us
The VHAS is comprised of an international team of social science and health science
researchers from North America and Asia. VHAS also engages and trains a team of graduate
and undergraduate students in the U.S., Canada, Singapore and Vietnam. In addition
to the named team members below, the VHAS recognizes the contribution of a team of
17 interviewers from the Fila-Bavi DSS and Institute of Family and Gender Studies,
Vietnam, and several highly skilled biomarker data collection technicians from the
Hanoi Medical University and the local commune health centers in our data collection
sites.
Principal Investigators
Korinek, lead PI of the VHAS, is a Professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Sociology. She is also Director of the University of Utah’s Asia Center, a Title VI National Resource Center for Asian and Pacific language and area studies. Korinek received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington. As Co-Principal Investigator of the Henry Luce Foundation funded Mekong Region Development Research Group (2012-present), she has led scholarly exchanges and research methodology trainings that foster collaborations across researchers in Southeast Asia and North America. Korinek has authored numerous articles on issues of social inequality; armed conflict and health; and population, health and aging in Vietnam, Thailand and developing Asia more broadly.
Zimmer is a Tier I Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Global Aging and Community at MSVU with two decades of experience working in interdisciplinary environments at the crossroads of demography, gerontology and sociology. He brings to the project a career-long focus on physical health of older adults in lower and middle income countries. Among a number of high profile grant awards, he led the 2004 Cambodian Elderly Survey, conducted in a neighboring country to Vietnam. This was the first probability sample survey of older adults in that country, and using these data, he conducted analyses on the impact of the Cambodian war in the late 1970’s on older adults. He has published over 100 articles refereed journal and book chapter articles on topics related to health and aging. Zimmer also has expertise in contemporary methodologies and statistical modeling of health outcomes, in particular, on long-term transitions and trajectories in health.
Bussarawan (Puk) Teerawichitchainan holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington. Her research interests lie at the intersection of family demography, social gerontology, medical sociology, and social stratification. Her current research examines the roles of family, policy, and social structure in explaining the wellbeing of older persons in Southeast Asia.
Co-Investigators and Lead Research Personnel
Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel is a Professor of Economics at Dalhousie University, Canada. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston in 2009. She earned a B.S. Degree in Economics from METU, Turkey in 2004. Her research focuses on topics intertwining Labor Economics, Development Economics, and Health Economics. She has been especially interested in the long-term effects of childhood environment, armed conflicts, educational and health policies on individuals’ long-term labor market, education, and health outcomes.
Dr.Cohen uses longitudinal epidemiological data to establish causal relationships between the mechanisms underlying aging and biomarkers. He applies similar methods to different species to understand how physiological regulatory networks operate at different time scales, and how to measure their impact on the evolution of physiology over time depending on environmental changes and selection pressure. In the long term, he hopes to generate a method for measuring biological age, which could be applied clinically.
Nguyen Huu Minh
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Institute of Family and Gender Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Dr NGUYEN Huu Minh is a Professor and High Senior Researcher of the Institute for Family and Gender Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. He received his PhD in Sociology in 1998 from University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He is a Former Director of the Institute for Family and Gender Studies (2005-2017), Former Vice-Director of the Institute of Sociology (1999-2005). His publications include many books, articles in Vietnamese and some monographs, book chapters, articles in English on Urban studies; Family studies; Gender Equality and Empowerment of women in Vietnam.
Hai T. Nguyen, Ph.D. is a director of research of the Modern Vietnam War Studies Program at the Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School. He earned his doctorate in History at Texas Tech University. His publications include books, articles, and documentary films focusing on military and social history, local culture and religion, memory and oral history of the war.
Tiffany Pan is a Research Scientist and Biodemography Lab Director in the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. She received a Ph.D. in Anthropology and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Washington. She collaborates with and supports population researchers by consulting on biomarker methods and providing laboratory training and services.
to facilitate studies merging the social and biological sciences.
Yvette Young is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Vietnam Health and Aging Study at the University of Utah. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Utah. Her research explores the social, economic, and health effects of migration, social inequality, and conflict. Her current research examines war related trauma along with the causes and effects of migration, both voluntary and forced.
Student Researchers/Project Assistants
Le My Lan
PROJECT ASSISTANT
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute & Hanoi Medical University
