Kirtan Kaur ’12 defends her doctoral dissertation.
Dr. Kaur, an alumna of the Biology and Environmental Studies programs, completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences.
On Friday, April 24, 2020, alumna Kirtan Kaur ’12 defended her Ph.D. thesis in front of a large Zoom audience from the NYU Langone Health Center. Dr. Kaur’s dissertation, “The Sex-Dependent Influence of Gestational Air Pollution Exposure on Placental Metabolic Gene Expression within the Rhode Island Child Health Study (RICHS),” assesses how pollution exposure during pregnancy can impact fetal development and susceptibility to adverse health outcomes in later life. Her work focused on human placental samples collected from a birth cohort study to discern the effects of gestational particulate pollution exposure on placental gene expression and how that impacts fetal growth. She was mentored by Drs. Frederick Naftolin and Alan Arslan at NYU Langone.
Dr. Kaur’s work in environmental/public health and toxicology is more important than ever. She graduated from MMC in 2012 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies. Congratulations, Dr. Kaur!
As MMC worked to reopen its Main Campus for the Fall 2020 semester, the Department of Natural Sciences developed a plan to continue performing in-person laboratory courses while also accommodating remote learners. MMC’s science labs underwent extensive safety reinforcement to allow in-person students to participate in labs with their remote partners learning from home.
