Postdoctoral Associate, Boston University
Dr. Ruijia Chen is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health and an incoming assistant professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. She is a social epidemiologist by training and received her doctoral degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Harvard University. Her research examines social determinants of brain aging across the life course, with a particular focus on social isolation. She applies advanced epidemiologic methods to address challenges related to measurement, reverse causality, and selection bias in studies of social connections and brain aging outcomes. She is also interested in using digital data to study social isolation as well as examining social policies and community-level interventions that promote social connectedness among older adults.