Congratulations to associate professor of population health and disease prevention, Andrew Noymer, PhD, for receiving the 2021-2022 Academic Senate Mid-Career Faculty Award for Service in recognition of his outstanding contributions to public service on and beyond campus.
An epidemiologist and health demographer by training, Noymer has leveraged his expertise on infectious diseases to serve as a subject matter expert and informational resource for UCI and local Orange County communities as well as statewide and national audiences. He has worked tirelessly to disseminate critical public health information to help community members make informed decisions about their health. From communicating updates about the spread of the virus to defending the science behind the vaccine, he has demonstrated devotion to the field of public health and public service. He also contributed to the Program in Public Health’s Fall 2020 large-scale, population-based COVID-19 surveillance study – dubbed “actOC” – that revealed significant underestimation of cases and disparities across racial-ethnic and socioeconomic groups.
“The word pandemic comes from Greek and its literal meaning is ‘upon people’; indeed that’s apt because the pandemic is all about people – us – and what we do (social distancing, masking, vaccinating, and so on). It’s not just a question of understanding the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a test tube, but the course of the ongoing pandemic is affected by our actions,” said Noymer. “As such, communicating the scientific understanding of the outbreak to the public is crucial, and it has been my honor and privilege to serve the University’s mission of knowledge creation and dissemination in this way, during these last twenty months.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Noymer on this well-deserved honor.
