Posted 01/15/2007

USC professor wins 2006 Young Professional Achievement Award from MCH coalition

Dr. Jihong Liu, an assistant professor at the Arnold School of Public Health, is the winner of the 2006 Young Professional Achievement Award presented by the Coalition for Excellence in MCH Epidemiology.

The award recognizes and promotes excellence in maternal and child health epidemiology research, practice and leadership.

Dr. Liu, who joined the Arnold School faculty in 2005, emigrated to the United State from China in 1997.  She studied at Harvard University where she earned a doctor of science degree in population and international health.

At Harvard, she also received interdisciplinary training on maternal and child health, epidemiology and biostatistics. She was the recipient of several honors, including the Clarence and Ann Dillon Dunwalke Scholarship, the Population Council’s Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Social Science and a biostatistics teaching award.

She published three papers from her doctoral dissertation, “Childlessness, Adoption and Children’s Well-being in China, 1950-1992.”

She also did significant work on family planning and breast feeding in China prior to coming to the U.S.  She was a national program officer at the State Family Planning Commission of China where she managed a number of national family planning projects and received an award for being the best survey interviewer and Outstanding Officer.

During this time she published work on men’s involvement family planning in China and family planning in Mexico.

At USC, Dr. Liu has worked in the areas of obesity, physical activity during pregnancy and maternal and infant health. She has become a peer reviewer for the America Journal of Public Health, Annals of Epidemiology, the Maternal and Child Health Journal, Social Science and Medicine and the Journal of Rural Health.