yale history phd admissions

Program in the History of Science and Medicine

You are here, admissions and financial aid.

The Program in the History of Science and Medicine requires an academic writing sample of not more than twenty-five pages, double spaced, to accompany the application. Normally, the writing sample should be based on research in primary source materials. Please note that applicants for the Program in History are required to write a book review for their application. This is not required for HSHM.

The deadline for submission of the application for the History graduate program is December 15.  Please note that the History Department no longer requires GRE scores from applicants.  Please do not self-report scores or have electronic scores sent to the Graduate School.  Scores will not be reviewed. (GRE scores for The Program in History of Science & Medicine are optional.)

All graduate applications are evaluated by the HSHM faculty, but the application process is centrally coordinated by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Please see the GSAS website for information about deadlines, standardized tests, and so on. First-year classes have averaged 4 PhD students in the History of Science and Medicine Program and another 22 students in the History program.

Applicants should have a strong undergraduate background in history and/or a science relevant to their graduate interests. Outstanding performance in any field relevant to the program will be taken into consideration.

The Graduate School does not award transfer credit. In recognition of graduate work completed before matriculation at Yale, the Director of Graduate Studies may recommend to the Dean that up to three required courses be waived. Any such waiver is ordinarily not granted until the completion of the first semester’s work in the History Department. Graduate courses completed elsewhere will not appear on the Graduate School transcript.  

Joint Degree Programs: MD/PhD and JD/PhD

Students may pursue a doctorate in History of Science and Medicine jointly with a degree in Medicine or Law. Standard graduate financial support is provided for the PhD phase of work toward such a joint degree. Candidates for the joint degree in law must apply for admission to both the Law School and the Graduate School. Information about the joint degree program with Medicine can be obtained from the Yale Medical School and from the special site for the History of Medicine .  

Financial Aid

All PhD students are awarded a financial aid package that pays for full tuition and provides a minimum level of support per twelve-month year for up to six years.  The exact amount of aid each year is adjusted for changes in the cost of living. For more information, please see the Office of Financial Aid . There are also many grants and fellowships available, especially for dissertation-related travel. This includes both internal Yale grants and external awards.

Although not required, all PhD applicants are encouraged to apply for external fellowships at the same time they apply for admission. Examples include the Jacob K. Javits fellowship from the US Department of Education and the Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. There are also fellowships available for research in specific subjects and regions.

There is no financial aid available for the terminal M.A. degree.

• PhD/Master's Application Process

Who is Eligible to Apply? 

If you have completed your undergraduate degree (bachelor's or equivalent) or will have completed it prior to your intended matriculation date at Yale, you may apply to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

A Master's degree is not required to apply for a PhD at Yale, although some programs give preference to applicants with post-baccalaureate training. Consult your program of interest directly for information on how it evaluates applications.

We value diversity of all kinds at the Graduate School, and we encourage students from all backgrounds to apply if Yale is a good fit for your intellectual and professional goals. All are welcome to apply, without regard to citizenship or immigration status, socioeconomic level, race, religion, gender identification, sexual orientation, disability, etc.

Requirements for All PhD and Master's Degree Applicants

You will need to provide the following with your application for admission:

• A statement of academic purpose. You will find the prompt for the statement of purpose in our Application Question FAQs . 
• A list of all the prior colleges or universities you have attended, accompanied by unofficial transcripts from each school. Unofficial transcripts should be uploaded with your application. Official or paper transcripts are not needed at this time. 
• Three letters of recommendation. Enter the names of your recommenders directly in the application and they will receive a link to upload a letter on your behalf. 
• $105 application fee or fee waiver. 
• Standardized tests . GRE requirements vary by program. TOEFL or IELTS are necessary for most non-native English speakers. 
• Resume/CV . 
• Some programs have additional requirements, such as a writing sample . You can find information about any specific requirements on the program's website. 

Where Do I Begin?

Decide whether you will apply for a PhD or a terminal Master’s (MA, MS) in one of the programs available at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences . (Note that you will earn one or more Master's degrees en route to a PhD.) Learn about the program: its faculty, course offerings, and resources. Read the faculty's research publications. If you can identify and articulate why the program is a good fit for you and show how your preparation and interests align well with it, you will have a strong application.

A note to students applying to one of Yale’s professional schools or programs:

• If you are applying for a PhD in Architecture, Environment, Investigative Medicine, Law, Management, Music, Nursing, or Public Health; for an MS in Public Health; or for an MA in Music, be sure to use the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences PhD/Master's application.
• If you are applying for any other degree at one of the University’s professional schools (Art, Architecture, Divinity, Drama, Environment, Global Affairs, Law, Management, Medicine, Music, Nursing, and Public Health), visit that school’s website for further instructions. Those programs have separate admissions policies and processes that are administered by the professional schools, not GSAS.

Application deadlines vary by program, so please see Dates & Deadlines for information about your program of interest. 

All new students matriculate in the fall. The admissions process begins nearly a year in advance of matriculation.

Some PhD and Master’s degree programs require Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Check your program's standardized testing requirement before you apply. 

In addition, applicants whose native language is not English may need to take an English Language test (TOEFL or IELTS).

The application for Fall 2024 entry is closed. The application for Fall 2025 entry will be available starting in mid-August 2024. 

Be sure to complete and submit the application before your program's application deadline. 

Your application fee or an approved fee waiver is due upon submission of your application. 

Your letters of recommendation do not need to be received before you will be able to submit your application. However, since programs begin reviewing applications shortly after the respective application deadline, please be sure that your letters of recommendation are submitted promptly.

What Happens After I Submit My Application?

The faculty admissions committee in each department and program begins reviewing applications shortly after their application deadline. Led by the director of graduate studies (DGS) or director of graduate admissions (DGA), the committee will recommend students for admission to the Graduate School. Once confirmed by the deans of the Graduate School, the admissions office will release final decisions to applicants.

Unlike undergraduate admissions, the admissions office and staff of the Graduate School maintain the application, the application process, and other administrative transactions, but the admissions staff does not review applications or make admissions decisions. That responsibility is handled by the faculty of each department or program.

Most admissions decisions are provided between February and early March. You will receive an email notification when your admissions decision is available.

If you are accepted for admission, you will need to decide if you wish to accept our offer by April 15. We abide by Council of Graduate School's April 15 Resolution , regarding graduate financial support. 

Ready to apply? Begin your application today.

PhD/Master's Applicants

• Why Choose Yale Graduate School?
• Dates and Deadlines
• Standardized Testing Requirements

Non-Degree Program Applicants

Looking for non-degree programs? In some cases, it is possible to enroll at the Graduate School as a non-degree student. Non-degree students receive a transcript and many of the benefits of being a Yale student, but do not earn a degree upon completion of their enrollment. We offer three types of non-degree programs.

• Non-Degree Programs

Department of the History of Art

You are here.

Applications for admission to the department’s graduate program are reviewed by a faculty committee chaired by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). This committee makes recommendations about admission to the University Graduate School  on the basis of perceived merit and fit with the current configuration of faculty and students; it does not take into account information concerning financial circumstances. In light of the department’s recommendations, the Dean of the Graduate School gives the final approval to the admissions decisions. 

The number of admissions that may be offered is determined by the department’s facilities and the Graduate School’s resources. The number of applications has risen in recent years, and admission is offered only to about ten percent of applicants. Many well-qualified applicants may not receive admission, but are certainly welcome to reapply.

Applicants are required to submit a term paper or other writing sample. This should not exceed 20 pages and should demonstrate the applicant’s capacity for scholarly research in his or her main area of interest. It may include a few photos or brief bibliography, if necessary, but the true purpose of the paper is to showcase the student’s writing skills. The committee weighs the application materials with various points in mind. The statement of purpose (500-1000 words) is an especially weighty component, serving as a concise introduction to the applicant’s major area(s) of interest, academic (or other relevant) experience, aims for future research and professional life, and vision of how he or she will mesh with the program. GRE scores are no longer necessary for the application process. In the transcript, attention is given mainly to the art history courses, noting their number, variety, and grades. It is not a prerequisite for this program that the applicant has been a formal art history major in college.

Yale has a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs in which the art history department plays an important role, including African and African-American Studies, American Studies, East Asian Studies, Film and Media Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies. When the History of Art admissions committee has finished its work, applications not included in the accepted group may be reviewed by appropriate faculty members and transferred to the application pool of one of the above programs. If the admissions committee in that program agrees, the student is then asked whether he or she would like such a transfer to take place. As a result, a number of students in recent years have been pleased to accept offers of admission to these Yale programs. Some of these programs are for the MA only, and their graduates may then apply to continue to the Ph.D. in art history; others are for the doctorate itself.

If you are interested in applying to Yale, you may wish to visit our campus to meet with faculty members, attend classes, and/or speak with current students. If so, please contact   individual professors and  graduate students   directly via e-mail to arrange your own schedule. Because the application deadline is December 1st, such visits should take place in the fall semester. There is of course no requirement that applicants visit campus in advance. Even complex questions can be answered via e-mail, and you might also ask faculty members if they are willing to meet virtually, via Zoom or telephone. Once the department has extended its offers to successful applicants, a visiting day is arranged for the new cohort, so that they can get to know the faculty, students, and resources in greater depth.

In choosing where to apply (or where to go, when accepted by several schools), students rightly put stress on the fields of art history covered and on the known quality of the faculty in a given program. You can get a sense of what we teach and publish by reviewing our faculty web pages , and reading some of the materials your prospective teachers and advisors have written. You are welcome to contact them with questions about their teaching plans in the coming years, and to contact the DGS with any additional questions about the application process.

All questions regarding the general completion or submission of the application should be directed to the Yale GSAS Admissions .

Yale Graduate Admissions

Yale Graduate Funding

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School of Architecture 2023–2024

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• Doctor of Philosophy Program /

History and Theory Track

Admission requirements.

Applicants must have a master’s degree or equivalent in  architecture, urban planning, environmental design,  or, exceptionally, a related  field.  Two years of professional work in an architecture office are recommended. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test taken no more than five years prior to application is required. All applicants whose native language is not English are  also  required to take the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT), which includes a section on spoken English. The TOEFL requirement may be waived only for applicants who, prior to matriculation at Yale, will have received a baccalaureate degree or its international equivalent from a college or university where English is the primary language of instruction. Applicants must have studied in residence at the baccalaureate institution for at least three years to receive the waiver. A waiver will not be granted on the basis of an advanced degree (such as M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.) from another institution.

In addition to meeting  the  qualifying criteria, candidates are required as part of  the   application to submit a portfolio of their own architectural  work,  a writing sample in the form of a substantial research paper or  publication,  and an explanation of their motivation for engaging in their chosen course of study.  Qualified applicants may be invited to interview with a member of the doctoral faculty.

The portfolio should be a well-edited representation of the applicant’s creative work.   Portfolios may not contain videos.   Anything submitted that is not entirely the applicant’s own work must be clearly identified as such.   The portfolio is submitted digitally as a single  PDF   document optimized not to exceed  20Mb   and will need to be uploaded as part of the online application.   Pages of the pdf portfolio should be uploaded as spreads.   The digital portfolio will be viewed on computer screens, so resolution above 150 dpi is not necessary.

Admission to the Ph.D.   program in Architecture is administered by the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.   For  general  questions regarding  admissions,  please contact   [email protected] .

The Application Process

The online application can be accessed at   http://gsas.yale.edu/admission   when it is available.   Applications for   the  program beginning in   the  2024–2025   academic  year must be submitted no later than January 2, 2024.   Applicants will not be allowed to submit applications after the deadline has passed.

Track Requirements

Students   are required to  be full-time   and  in residence in the New Haven area during   their  first three academic years.   Students may  be asked   to  attend summer orientation courses before   their  first term.   (See Degree Requirements under Policies and Regulations   in  the Bulletin   of  the Graduate School of Arts   and  Sciences.) 

During the first two years,   students engage in a concerted course of study that leads directly to  work on the dissertation.   In all, they are required to take twelve graduate-level seminars for credit.   These   include a Ph.D.   seminar taught in each of the  first two   terms by a  standing or visiting faculty  member of the School of  Architecture.   The Ph.D.   seminars,  ARCH 551  and  ARCH 552 , constitute the program’s methodological foundation and introduce students to an array of historiographic approaches and areas of study.   While the content of the two seminars varies from year to year, they tend to involve primary research on a specific topic, a survey of critical approaches, or the reading of a body of texts.

For purposes of fulfilling   their  remaining course requirements, students are encouraged to take one or more courses   outside the School of  Architecture that are related to their specific area of interest.   For example, a student working on   architecture in  Brazil   would  likely   take  courses   in  Latin American   history  and   culture.   Students may also opt to do independent readings with individual faculty in their area. 

Not later than the end of  the   second year, students   are expected to demonstrate competence in at least one foreign language relevant to their  field of   study.   Language competence is more than a formality and requires some acquaintance with literature in the chosen  language; competency may be demonstrated by a grade of B or better in a full-year intermediate-level language course or through examination.   By   the   end of the second year,   all course and language requirements are normally  completed, and the student’s field of interest is defined.   At this  point   the director of doctoral studies (DDS)  works with   the student  to identify  a thesis adviser, who may or may not be from the School of  Architecture. 

In   the fall term of the third year, students  are required to take   oral examinations on  three  topics   relevant  to   their  field   of  doctoral research.   The three field exams are administered by the thesis adviser and two additional examiners selected by the student.   Following  their  successful  completion,   the   DDS, in consultation with the student’s  principal  adviser, appoints  the student’s   dissertation  committee, which consists of   the  student’s principal adviser plus two additional faculty members.   It is typical for one of the dissertation committee members to come from outside the School of Architecture, with selection based on the student’s area of  interest.

At the end of the third year or, at latest, the beginning of the fourth, students are expected to defend their dissertation prospectus, a preliminary proposal of their dissertation topic.   The prospectus  comprises   a  description of the topic,   an outline of a detailed program of research, and an annotated bibliography.   Upon passing all pre-dissertation requirements including the field exams and prospectus defense, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.   and are “ABD” (all but dissertation).   At this point, they embark on their dissertation research and writing, submitting drafts of the dissertation chapters as they are completed.   The dissertation committee guides and monitors the student’s progress through the course of writing and evaluates the dissertation upon completion.

The Ph.D.   program is designed to be completed in five years.   However, if the dissertation has not been completed by the end of the fifth year and if, at that time, the program certifies that the candidate will complete the dissertation by August of the following academic year, the candidate may be eligible to take a teaching position in the School of Architecture or elsewhere in the University and extend funding for up to an additional nine months.

Graduate Research Assistant and Teaching Fellow Experience

Teaching is an important part of  the doctoral program in History and Theory of Architecture.   Students in the program are expected to teach or serve as research assistants for four terms, normally in their third and fourth years.   During these four terms, it is anticipated that a student in the History and Theory track will teach in two survey courses in the student’s area of study at the School of Architecture or elsewhere in the University and teach in two design studios at the School of Architecture.   All teaching assignments are carried out under the direct supervision of senior faculty.

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• Administrators
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Admissions: Applying to the MD-PhD Program

We seek applicants who are committed to pursuing a career as a physician-scientists. We value students who are curious, creative, compassionate, and resilient, and bring a diverse range of personal experiences, viewpoints, and academic interests to our collaborative and innovative community.

Candidates must submit their application to the Yale School of Medicine which includes the AMCAS and the Yale Secondary Applications and indicate their interest in being considered for the MD-PhD Program. All applications are holistically reviewed to find candidates whose academic and personal experiences indicate exceptional potential and a commitment to pursue MD and PhD training at Yale. Among the things we look for in a candidate's application are:

• Significant research experience(s) with evidence of increasing independence, responsibility, and depth of contributions
• Outstanding letters of recommendation, including those from research mentors who can reflect upon your potential for success as a physician-scientist
• Personal statements that allow us to understand your reasons for training as a physician-scientist
• Activities that reflect your curiosity, compassion, maturity, leadership, grit
• Broad academic excellence, not reflected solely in MCAT scores or GPA

Admissions Timeline

Invitations for interview will be sent via email from September to January. All interviews are virtual and will be scheduled over a two-day period. Candidates have interviews with members of both the MD and MD-PhD Interviewing subcommittees, non-evaluative meetings with MD-PhD program faculty and students, and informational sessions with the program director and current students. Social events and student buddies will help you learn more about the MD-PhD community at Yale and about living in New Haven. As part of the invitation to interview, we will provide a survey link that allows you to request informal meetings with up to five Yale faculty whose research is of interest to you. These informal discussions are not part of the admissions evaluation but are made available to you so that you can get a more complete picture of what Yale has to offer. Applicants who are not invited to interview for the MD-PhD Program will be offered the option to have their application considered for MD-only admission.

Special Instructions for Applicants Interested in “non-traditional” PhD programs

MD-PhD applicants who plan to pursue their PhD in Anthropology, Economics, History of Science & Medicine, Philosophy, Religious Studies or Sociology must submit applications to both the MD-PhD program and to the PhD program. (A link to the PhD program application will be sent to such students when their complete MD-PhD program application is received.) Interview invitations will be made after both applications have been reviewed. Materials required to support the PhD program application are detailed below. Students interested in these programs are encouraged to contact the MD-PhD program to indicate their interest and to obtain the most up-to-date information about specific PhD program requirements. Please note: the completed MD-PhD application must be received by October 15th and the PhD application completed by November 1st to allow full review and consideration for interview.

Requested additional materials:

• Anthropology
• History of Science and Medicine
• Religious Studies
• Please upload a current resume/CV.
• Applicants to Economics (Only) – GRE Test Scores required

Important information to keep in mind:

• The " personal statement of academic purpose " is carefully evaluated by PhD program faculty; when requested, it should be prepared with this audience in mind. This document should be a succinct statement of 500-1,000 words explaining why you are applying to Yale for graduate study, describing your past research, your preparation for the intended field of study, your academic plans for graduate study at Yale (e.g. your proposed research project), and your subsequent career objectives. Explain how the faculty, research, and resources at Yale would contribute to your future goals.
• You may submit a letter of recommendation from the same individual as part of both the AMCAS and GSAS applications; we encourage you to ask the recommenders most capable of speaking to your preparation for the PhD program of study to submit their letters to both AMCAS and GSAS. Once you identify a recommender in the GSAS Admissions Portal, they will receive an email providing instructions and access information.
• No application fee to GSAS will be required to submit these additional materials.
• The MCAT will be accepted in lieu of the GRE except for candidates to Economics.

Gap years are not necessary for applicants . Nationally, >75% of MD-PhD students have taken at least one gap year after college 1 . Gap years can help applicants gain research or clinical experience necessary for deciding whether dual-degree training is right for them. Or they can provide time to travel, work, or take the MCAT and apply. But gap years per se are not necessary to be admitted to MD-PhD programs! The distribution of gap years taken by Yale MD-PhD applicants, interviewed or accepted candidates, and matriculated students for 2019-2023 shows a median “gap” of 2 years for interviewed, accepted, and matriculated applicants But 18% of our current students joined the program immediately after graduating from college.

Diversity and inclusion are central to our mission; our goal is to train students with a wide range of backgrounds, personal identities, and research interests to become physician-scientists. MD-PhD students who matriculated in the past five years completed their undergraduate degrees at accredited four-year institutions all over the United States and territories, and include students who have attended community colleges, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and small, non-research-intensive colleges. Demographics of current students, as self-identified in their AMCAS medical school applications, are shown below. We encourage individuals with disabilities or who may be from economically, socially, culturally and/or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to our Program. Yale is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive environment to individuals with disabilities by ensuring that appropriate academic and technical accommodations are available to students. Please contact the MD-PhD Office and Student Accessibility Services for further information. U.S. citizens, permanent residents, refugees, asylees, DACA recipients and international students are all eligible to apply for admission to the MD-PhD Program.

1 Brass LF, Fitzsimonds RM, Akabas MH. Gaps between college and starting an MD-PhD program are adding years to physician-scientist training time. JCI Insight. 2021;e156168 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]

Yale's MD-PhD Program grants full consideration to students who plan to pursue a PhD program in departments that are part of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) , the School of Public Health (YSPH) , School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) , and some departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS ). Please click on the links for more information on specific PhD programs. Current students are pursuing their PhD training in the following programs and departments.

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We Needed a Space for First-Generation and Low-Income Students. So We Made One.

Kimberly Rosa-Perez ’24 and Stephanie Kim ’24 share what inspired them to establish Yale SOM's First-Generation/Low-Income Club.

We are excited to announce a new student-led initiative aimed at supporting students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds: Yale SOM’s First-Generation/Low-Income (FLI) Club, which we founded in February. Born out of our own experiences, this club recognizes the need for targeted support and resources for every student, regardless of their financial or family circumstances.

Our journey began from a shared experience: navigating the complexities of business school as FLI students. Wet met in 2022, shortly before arriving at SOM, through QuestBridge Graduate School Match , a program that provides MBA scholarships for students from low-income backgrounds. Though nearly a fifth of our SOM peers come from first-generation or low-income backgrounds, we soon realized that this significant demographic lacked a dedicated group. We've also felt firsthand the isolation that comes from not seeing our own lived experiences reflected by our peers. That reality inspired us to establish a club devoted to addressing FLI-specific challenges and the nuances of navigating an MBA program as FLI students—a reality that often goes unseen but is deeply felt in academic, social, and professional settings.

We want to build the FLI community at SOM so that we can support each other and connect with peer groups across Yale and at other business schools. With the FLI Club, we aim to bridge the gap between students of different economic backgrounds by providing resources and creating a network of support that champions inclusivity, belonging, and understanding. In engaging with over 50 SOM students from FLI backgrounds, we’ve found this club to be a safe space to talk about overcoming financial inaccessibility, building towards generational wealth, and navigating cultures of extreme privilege. 

These are some of the initiatives we’re already working on:

• Mentorship. Partnering with the SOM Alumni Relations and Career Development Offices, we aim to set up mentorship programs that pair students with successful alumni, fostering networks that support both personal and professional growth.

• Financial advocacy and education. We host workshops and share resources on financial literacy—critical for managing the cost of an MBA and strategizing to build generational wealth.

• Community building. Our events, ranging from social mixers to small group discussions, build strong bonds among FLI students and allies within the broader Yale community. We hope to promote unity and shared understanding by coming together and sharing our stories.

• Giving back. We are passionate about extending our reach beyond current students. Through initiatives with the Admissions Office and local high schools, we aim to mentor prospective students, demystifying the path to and through business school.

The FLI Club is more than just an organization for us—it is a movement, and a small step towards a more inclusive, understanding, and supportive SOM. We envision this group not just as a space for current students, but also as a lasting community that evolves to meet the needs of future generations. As we prepare to graduate, we are excited for our peers to continue leading this charge, ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, can succeed and thrive. By creating these foundational supports, we hope to ensure that the pathway to leadership is equitable and accessible to all, truly reflecting SOM’s mission to educate leaders for business and society.

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Award-Winning Statistician Joins Yale School of Public Health Leadership

Bhramar mukherjee appointed inaugural senior associate dean of public health data science and data equity, award-winning statistician joins ysph.

From left to right: YSPH Dean Megan L. Ranney, Bhramar Mukherjee, and Steven (Shuangge) Ma.

Award-winning statistician Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, has been appointed Yale School of Public Health’s inaugural Senior Associate Dean of Public Health Data Science and Data Equity, an important new leadership position that reflects the school’s focus on data science as a critical pillar for the future of public health. She joins YSPH on Aug. 1, 2024.

Mukherjee currently holds a number of distinguished academic positions at the University of Michigan School of Public Health where she is the John D. Kalbfleisch Distinguished University Professor, Siobán D. Harlow Collegiate Professor of Public Health, and chair of the Department of Biostatistics. She is also a professor of epidemiology, and of global public health. In addition, Mukherjee serves as associate director for quantitative data Sciences at the University of Michigan’s Rogel Cancer Center and, last year, she was appointed assistant vice president for research, designing a comprehensive research data analysis service infrastructure for all three U-M campuses.

YSPH Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, said Mukherjee’s appointment aligns with the school’s strategic goal of advancing public health data science, a critical part of YSPH’s leadership of the transformation of public health.

“This new role symbolizes our commitment to both rigor and equity in data science as the foundation of the future of public health,” Ranney said in an April 8 schoolwide announcement. “Dr. Mukherjee’s arrival will allow us to coordinate across public health disciplines and across the university in achieving our shared, future-focused, consequentialist vision of public health.”

At YSPH, Mukherjee will also hold the positions of Anna M.R. Lauder endowed professor of biostatistics and professor of chronic disease epidemiology. She will be a member of the Yale Cancer Center director’s cabinet. Additionally, she will hold a secondary appointment in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and will have affiliations with the MacMillan Center and the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science.

This new role symbolizes our commitment to both rigor and equity in data science as the foundation of the future of public health. Dean Megan L. Ranney

As senior associate dean, Dr. Mukherjee will work with Dean Ranney, the school’s senior leadership team, and the broader university community to develop and realize a strategic plan for public health data science and data equity that will enable transformational and impactful research in the face of quickly changing methods, technology, and societal shifts. In doing so, she will lead the development of resources to support the school’s public health data science and data equity research enterprise. She will also work to elevate YSPH’s data science and data equity education programs, with a goal of enhancing the pipeline of diverse scholars in this field. Additionally, representing YSPH’s commitment to global public health, she will support and create international collaborations that enhance the global practice, teaching, and science of public health data science and data equity.

She also plans to continue her own research and teaching.

Mukherjee said she felt “a strong intellectual resonance” with the Yale community when she visited YSPH in August 2023 as the inaugural speaker for the Dean’s Leaders in Public Health lecture series.

“I was inspired by the transformative vision Dean Ranney has for YSPH and more broadly for academic public health,” Mukherjee said. “Data is a quintessential quantum of research, but we often forget to ask the fundamental question: who is in my study? I believe everyone should have equal opportunity of benefitting from data resources and data products.”

“Data equity, both in terms of quantity and quality of data, is a critical pillar of health equity, climate equity and more broadly, societal equity,” Mukherjee continued. “I am deeply honored to have this inaugural leadership position underscoring the importance of data to improve the human condition. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the Yale community to advance our collective pursuit of creative, impactful, fair, and equitable data science.”

Mukherjee said the decision to leave the University of Michigan after 18 years was “exceptionally hard”. She thanked her students, friends, and colleagues at U-M for “shaping my vision for public health data science.”

Mukherjee joins a strong team of data scientists at YSPH. Faculty in the Department of Biostatistics are considered international leaders in their field and have been extensively recognized for their pioneering work. YSPH’s acclaimed public health modeling unit , which exists across multiple departments in the school, is particularly acclaimed for its deep and direct impact in Connecticut and internationally during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing policymakers with timely data-driven insights to help guide emergency response. YSPH’s core data science centers such as the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences , the Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science , and Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology , bring researchers and scholars together to spur development of innovative statistical tools and techniques that are used to address today’s most pressing public health and biomedical challenges.

Biostatistics Department Chair Steven (Shuangge) Ma said Mukherjee’s leadership and research strengths will elevate YSPH data science work to a new level.

“Bhramar is a remarkable researcher and a true leader in the field,” Ma said. “She has made profound methodological contributions to the foundation of biostatistics and equally importantly public health practice. We are thrilled to have her join us.”

Mukherjee’s methodological research interests include statistical methods for analysis of electronic health records, studies of gene-environment interactions, shrinkage estimation, data integration, and analysis of multiple pollutants. Her collaborative contributions have focused on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, COVID-19, exposure science, environmental epidemiology, and reproductive health. She has co-authored more than 380 publications in statistics, biostatistics, medicine, and public health and has served as a principal investigator on multiple NSF and NIH grants. She is the founding director of the University of Michigan’s undergraduate Big Data Summer Institute and has been leading the program for the past nine years.

Mukherjee’s innovation and leadership in data science has been widely recognized. She is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022. She is the recipient of many awards for her scholarship, service, and teaching at the University of Michigan and beyond, including the Gertrude M. Cox award, the L. Adrienne Cupples award, the Janet L. Norwood award, the Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society, the Jerome Sacks Award for Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Research in statistics and, most recently, the 2024 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award. She also is a recipient of the Outstanding Statistics Alumnus award, Distinguished Woman Scholar award, and Distinguished School of Science Alumnus award from her alma mater, Purdue University.

During her distinguished academic career at the University of Michigan, Mukherjee received many prestigious institutional awards including the School of Public Health Excellence in Teaching Award, Rackham Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, the Sarah Goddard Power award for improving the work environment for women, and the highly coveted Distinguished University Professorship. Mukherjee and her team took an active role in modeling the SARS-CoV-2 virus trajectory in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been featured in many major media outlets including the BBC, Der Spiegel, Forbes, NPR, the New York Times, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and the Times of India.

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• Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH Dean of Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) and Professor of Emergency Medicine
• Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD Department Chair and Professor of Biostatistics; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource

Kristy Ferraro, '24 PhD

Unique Research on Calving Impacts on Nutrient Cycle Earns 2024 Bormann Prize

A study led by YSE doctoral candidate Kristy Ferraro demonstrates how plant-fungal associations in ecosystems can mitigate the impact of calving animals in nitrogen cycling.

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In the expanding field of zoogeochemistry, which examines how animals interact with nutrient cycles, Kristy Ferraro had a novel idea. The Yale School of the Environment doctoral candidate developed a field experiment that would look at how plant-fungal ecology interacted with the nutrients introduced by calving animals — white tail deer — during spring green-up.

“Animals interact with ecosystems in so many different ways. They are constantly impacting, and are impacted by, the environments they live in,” Ferraro said. “Untangling the ways in which animals are supporting ecosystems or contributing to ecosystem function is important because it helps us understand their role. While we know that carcasses and waste can accelerate nutrient cycles and create nutrient hotspots, for large mammals, there hasn’t been much work on the role of placenta and natal fluid in ecosystem functions. There also hasn’t been any work on the interactive effects of animal inputs and the underlying plant-fungal associations. The research really extends beyond the question of how animals impact ecosystems to how ecosystems are modulating that impact.”

This groundbreaking interdisciplinary research, which was published in 2023 in the Journal of Animal Ecology, earned Ferraro the 2024 F. Herbert Bormann Prize. The award honors a YSE doctoral student whose work best exemplifies the legacy of Bormann, a plant ecologist who taught at YSE from 1966-1993 and whose research called the world’s attention to the threat of acid rain. Ferraro received the award at the 40th annual Research Day held at YSE April 12.

For the study, Ferraro and a team of YSE researchers placed animal placentas and simulated natal fluid at Yale-Myers Forest in plots dominated by one of two different plant-fungal associations common in northern forests — ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) or ectomycorrhizal (EcM). They returned to the sites three months later to record nutrient concentrations in the vegetation in the plots, as well as the cycling of nutrients in the soil. They found that the calving materials act as fertilizers and create nutrient hotspots that ultimately create more nutritious plants for animals to eat. They also discovered that while the nutrients introduced by the calving did accelerate nitrogen cycling, in some cases the underlying plant-fungal associations mitigated the effects by slowing it down.

“Our study highlights one newly discovered piece of an infinite feedback loop between animals and ecosystems …  Specifically,  the underlying plant-fungal association can mediate the impacts of calving inputs,”  Ferraro said. 

The study was co-authored by Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology;  Mark Bradford, professor of soils and ecosystem ecology; Les Welker ’22,’24 MESc; and Eli Ward ’18 MFS, ’23 PhD.

Ferraro said she was thrilled to receive the Bormann prize for the research.

From left: Les Welker ’22, ’24 MESc; Eli Ward '18 MFS, ’23 PhD; and Kristy Ferraro ’24 PhD conduct field research at Yale-Myers Forest examining how calving animals impact the nutrient cycle and how those impacts can be modulated by plant-fungal associations.

“What is special about the Bormann prize is the legacy it represents. Professor Bormann not only did interdisciplinary work, but he also did impactful work … and that’s the sort of work I want to do. I want to do work that not only brings disciplines together and helps us better understand conservation and ecology, but also makes us do better conservation and ecology,” she said.

Ferraro first had set her sights on studying caribou in Canada, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she restructured her research and worked with Ward, a forest ecologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, to add the component of investigating plant-fungal interactions with zoogeochemistry at a site closer to home.

It wasn’t easy getting the materials for the study, Ferraro noted. Instead of white-tail deer placenta and natal fluid, the team substituted lamb placentas because it was easier to obtain. To get those, she had to call farmers around the state and ask them to freeze the placentas so she could obtain them and place them at the forest sites.

“We called about 50 sheep farmers around Connecticut to ask them to keep the materials, and we got a lot of varied responses. Some were like, ‘Absolutely not. That’s weird.’ But we ultimately found three really wonderful farmers who were super interested in the research and were really engaged,” she said.

After picking up the placentas from the farmers, sometimes out of buckets, the team then placed the placenta and simulated natal fluid in crab traps at the Yale-Myers plots that had the two different fungal associations (ErM and EcM).

“Not everyone has the stomach for it. I barely had the stomach for it. So that was the first hurdle,” Ferraro said.

They also set up camera traps to record animal interactions. The cameras revealed that some placentas were stolen by animals to nourish themselves.

“Turns out possums are really good at sticking their little hands into the cages,” Ferraro said, adding that racoons, coyotes, and turkeys also helped themselves to the placentas.

Despite the scavenging by animals, they found that the natal fluid itself had enough of an impact to bump up nutrient cycling and create nutrition hotspots in the surrounding plant material, but the impact was mediated by both plant-fungal associations, with ErM plant-fungal associations having a slower nutrient cycle compared to EcM.

The findings have important implications. As shrubs move north and spread due to climate change, the ErM plant-fungal associations that are underlyng shrub communities could mute the nutrient hotspots animals create as they did at Yale-Myers Forest, Ferraro said.

“Kristy’s research fits well with the spirit of the Bormann Award. Herb Bormann pioneered the use of experiments at scale to evaluate how human impacts, such as forest harvesting, leads to alterations of biogeochemical cycling across the landscape. Kristy also reports on an experiment, at scale, to evaluate effects of another human impact — forest management that supports deer populations — in boosting biogeochemical cycling. The work gives holistic insight into an animal species’ impact on biogeochemical processes in ecosystems,”  Schmitz said. 

Other Research Day award winners include doctoral students Destiny Treloar, who earned the Schmitz Prize for best oral presentation for her research on “Exploring the Relationship Between Sociodemographic Characteristics, Food Access, and Food Assistance Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Predominantly Hispanic/Latino City: Hialeah, Florida;  Lachlan Byrnes, for Best Poster on “Contrasting patterns of mortality in an Amazon-Cerrado forest edge during exceptional drought”; and Ananya Rao ’25 MESc, who received the Master’s Student Oral Presentation Prize for her research on “Leveraging Community Forest Resources Rights to augment NTFP-based livelihoods in Central India.”

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History professor awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

By Kyra Gurney 04-25-2024

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded a fellowship to Martin Nesvig , a history professor in the University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences . 

“The Guggenheim Fellowship is one of the most coveted and prestigious awards for mid-career scholars in any field,” said Ashli White, the chair of the history department. “It is a wonderful recognition of Professor Nesvig’s work to date and of the enormous potential of his future scholarship.”

The Guggenheim Fellowship is highly competitive. Nearly 3,000 people applied for this year’s fellowship, and only 188 were selected “on the basis of prior career achievement and exceptional promise,” the Guggenheim Foundation said in a press release .

“The College of Arts and Sciences is delighted that the Guggenheim Foundation has recognized Martin Nesvig’s impressive scholarship,” said Dean Leonidas Bachas. “This fellowship is a terrific accomplishment.”

The fellowship will enable Nesvig, who studies colonial Mexican history , to complete the second book in a trilogy that examines how Spaniards and biracial people in colonial Mexico were influenced by Indigenous cultures.

This is a unique angle in ethnohistory, which typically focuses on how Indigenous peoples responded to colonial rule. Nesvig’s trilogy, entitled “The Xolotl Mitote and Other Episodes in Mexican Cultural History,” documents the acculturation of Spaniards and biracial people living in Mexico in the 16th and 17th centuries. 

“What I’m interested in is: What about those people? What did they do? How did they adapt?” Nesvig explained.

These are questions Nesvig is uniquely positioned to answer. He is one of a small number of historians who can read antiquated writing in Spanish, known as Spanish paleography. The challenge is not just the words and grammar used in the 1500s—although the language from this period would likely be difficult for most modern Spanish-speakers to understand—but also the handwriting. 

“I’ve practiced Spanish paleography for 25 years now. To be able to read it, you have to have training,” Nesvig explained. “The handwriting is unintelligible to the untrained eye. Your average person, if you showed them a document, wouldn’t be able to read it.”

This knowledge of Spanish paleography has enabled Nesvig to examine court records from the 1500s and other documents that shed light on how Spaniards and biracial people adopted Indigenous practices.

The trilogy is a project that draws on more than two decades of research. The first book, which Cambridge University Press plans to publish in the fall of 2025, examines how Spanish and North African women in the early years of Mexico’s colonial history were influenced by Indigenous peoples. The book looks at their involvement in activities like folk healing, divination, and the consumption of the hallucinogenic plant peyote.

The second book, which Nesvig plans to complete during his Guggenheim Fellowship, focuses on Spanish and biracial men during the same period. Some of the men living in areas of Mexico where the predominant ethnic group was the Nahua people became what Nesvig calls “Nahuatlized,” speaking the Nahuatl language, marrying Nahua women, and becoming involved in Nahua religious practices, including the worship of the trickster god Xolotl. Nesvig is also researching Nahuatl words that became part of the Spanish language, which are known as loan words.

Nesvig, who grew up in San Diego, California, first became interested in Mexican history while he was an undergraduate at San Diego State University. He lived in Mexico City for three years while completing his dissertation and earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in 2004. Nesvig joined the University of Miami in 2005. 

Nesvig is planning to complete the Guggenheim Fellowship during the 2025-2026 academic year. Prior to this fellowship, he will participate in a fellowship program at the College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities , where he will also work on the second book in the trilogy.

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Soros Fellowship for New Americans Announces 2024 Recipients

Ananya Agustin Malhotra, the daughter of immigrants who came to the United States from India and the Philippines, has been named a 2024 recipient of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans . Malhotra plans to join the Yale Law School class of 2027 in the fall.

Malhotra is among 30 recipients selected from a pool of more than 2,300 applicants for the fellowship, which is a merit-based graduate program for students who are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Fellows were selected for their achievements and their potential to make meaningful contributions to the United States across various academic fields. They will each receive up to $90,000 in funding to support their graduate studies.

“Each Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow embodies the spirit of resilience, innovation, and commitment to excellence that defines the immigrant experience,” said Fellowship Director Craig Harwood. “Together, they represent a diverse tapestry of backgrounds, perspectives, and aspirations, poised to make enduring contributions to their fields and communities.”

Malhotra was born in Georgia to parents who had immigrated to the United States from Obando, Bulacan, Philippines and New Delhi, India. Her experiences growing up in a bicultural and interfaith household inform her scholarly work on global history, international law, and peace and security issues.

Malhotra graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University. She earned an M.Phil. as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she researched how histories of empire and anticolonialism shape the international order. Over the past four years, Malhotra has studied and advocated for nuclear disarmament and risk reduction at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans was founded in 1997 to support immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing higher education. The program was established in recognition of the contributions New Americans have made to American life and in gratitude for the opportunities the United States afforded the fellowship’s founders.

Yale Law School 2024 Soros Fellow Biography:

Ananya Agustin Malhotra

Born and raised in the state of Georgia, Ananya Agustin Malhotra is the daughter of immigrants from Obando, Bulacan, Philippines and New Delhi, India. Raised in a bicultural and interfaith household, Ananya is deeply motivated by her mother and father’s family histories to advocate for a more just and peaceful future in United States foreign policy.

Ananya’s interests lie at the intersection of global history, international law, and peace and security issues. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a concentration in the School of Public and International Affairs. Her undergraduate thesis, based on oral histories with New Mexican Downwinders, explored the human legacies of the 1945 Trinity Test and the U.S. nuclear age. At Princeton, Ananya served as president of the Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources, and Education (SHARE) Peer Program, where she was first introduced to survivor-centered advocacy. 

As a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, Ananya earned an M.Phil. in modern European history with distinction, studying the histories of empire and anticolonialism in shaping international order. Her dissertation research explored the role of epistemology in the global intellectual history of decolonization and has been published in Global Histories and the Journal of the History of Ideas blog. For the last four years, Ananya has advocated for nuclear disarmament and risk reduction through her research, scholarship, and public commentary. Ananya has worked in Washington, D.C., at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to advance policies aimed at fostering a safer and more peaceful world. 

Ananya has also worked or held internships at the Logische Phantasie Lab, U.N. Women, and the European Roma Rights Centre, and is a member of the Younger Generation Leaders Network on Euro-Atlantic Security (YGLN) and the British American Security Information Council’s Emerging Voices Network. She has authored and co-authored several policy briefs and has collaborated on projects with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. Some of her other writing and work can be found in Inkstick Media, The Antonym Magazine , The American Oxonian , and the Oxford Review of Books .

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