Naja Hulvej Rod

Naja Hulvej Rod

Professor, Sektionsleder

Medlem af:

  • Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies

 

Naja Hulvej Rod

(Formerly Naja Rod Nielsen)

MS, PhD, DMSc

LinkedIn: Naja Hulvej Rod

Twitter: @HulvejRod

 

EDUCATION

DMSc in Medicine

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2014

PhD in Epidemiology          

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

2007

Master of Public Health Science

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2004

Bachelor of Public Health Science

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2002

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

Professor of Epidemiology

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2019-

External Faculty

Institute of Advanced Studies, Amsterdam University, the Netherlands

2022-

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

Chair and co-Founder of Section of Epidemiology

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2018-2023

Professor (mso) of Stress Epidemiology

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2017-2019

Adjunct Researcher

University of Stockholm, Sweden

2017-2020

Associate Professor of Epidemiology

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2008-2017

Adjunct Postdoctoral Fellow

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

2008-2011

Researcher

National Institute of Public Health, Denmark

2007-2008

Teaching Assistant

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2005-2006

Research Assistant               

National Institute of Public Health, Denmark

2002-2006

Epidemiologic advisor

RAND Health, Santa Monica, USA              

2004

Research Assistant

Institute of Preventive Medicine, Denmark

2001-2002

RESEARCH STATEMENT

I am leading an interdisciplinary research group in Complexity and Big Data in Epidemiology. Health is a complex phenomenon, and the aim of the research group is to study the social and biological factors determining health and disease and to elucidate the underlying behavioral, psychological, and physiological mechanisms that might explain these effects. I specifically aim to investigate the health consequences of the accumulation of childhood social adversities and the complex interactions between work, life and health as they evolve across the life span. I have solid experience in working with longitudinal datasets, register-based research and complex modelling including social influences and group dynamics. I also have a particular interest in causal inference and in development and application of new methods in epidemiology, such as interaction and mediation analyses. To embrace complexity in epidemiology I actively explore new sources (e.g. smartphones) of ‘big data’, incorporate system theory thinking and leverage insights across disciplines. I am also involved in several citizen science projects with a direct societal engagement and impact.

CAREER BREAKS

Three periods of maternity leave; July 2007 to March 2008 (9 months), June 2010 to February 2011 (9 months) and from October 2013 to June 2014 (9 months).

HONORS

The Elite Research Prize (EliteForsk-prisen) awarded by the Ministry for Higher Education and Science to outstanding researchers with international experience. 

2022

DFF Starting Grant (Sapere Aude), Independent Research Fund Denmark

2017

Matas’ Heart Prize, Danish Heart Foundation

2011

Raymond D. Goodman Scholarship Award, UCLA

2006

RESEARCH LEADERSHIP

Primary investigator for the citizen science research project ‘Standing together – at a distance: How Danes are living with the Corona Crisis’ (https://coronaminds.ku.dk/), which documents the public health effects of the crisis.

2020-

Primary investigator for the SmartSleep program (www.smartsleep.ku.dk), which is a multi-sourced study on mobile phone use, sleep and health

2018-

Primary Investigator of the Danish Life Course (DANLIFE) Cohort (www.danlife.ku.dk), which is a register-based cohort of more than 2 mill Danish children focusing on childhood adversities

2017-

Head of the Steering Committee for the Copenhagen Stress Research Center (www.stressresearch.ku.dk), which has been established to provide coordinated and innovative research into the mechanisms, health consequences and prevention of stress

2012-2019

Head of the research group in Complexity and Big Data in Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen (https://publichealth.ku.dk/sections/section-epidemiology/research/complexity-and-big-data/)

2015-

Primary investigator of the Stress and Health Sub-study of CAMB, which includes detailed information on physiological stress mechanisms

2010-

RESEARCH FUNDS

I have, in total, received 5.53 million EUR (equivalent to 41.5 mill DKK) in research funds as primary investigator and more than 3.1 m Euros as co-PI. I have qualified for the 2nd round (interview) of the ERC consolidator grant in 2023.

Funded projects where I am PI:

  • The Young Sleep Program: patterns, mechanisms, and dynamics underlying sleep health in young adults. Trygfonden, 1,787,907 DKK (238,400 EUR), 2023 to 2026, PI
  • The Young Sleep Program: patterns, mechanisms, and dynamics underlying sleep health in young adults. Lundbeck Foundation, 4,976,645 DKK (665,000 EUR), 2023 to 2026, PI
  • Labor market outcomes, mental health problems and childhood disadvantages. Rockwool Foundation, 2,863,098 DKK (381,700 Euros), 2022 to 2025, PI together with Signe Hald Andersen
  • A nationwide study on childhood adversities and gestational diabetes mellitus: understanding mechanisms, pathways, and consequences. Independent Research Fund Denmark, 2,851,366 DKK (380,200 Euros), 2021 to 2024, PI
  • Working environment in Danish Hospitals. The Danish Regions, 460,000 Euros, 2019 to 2023, PI
  • Healthy working among people with chronic disorders. Danish Work Environment Foundation, 340,000 Euros, 2019 to 2023, PI
  • The SmartSleep program. Documenting health consequences of smartphone interrupted sleep through a pioneering combination of high-resolution smartphone data and rich clinical health data, DFF Starting Grant (Sapere Aude), Independent Research Fund Denmark, 757,000 Euros, 2018 to 2023, PI
  • Parental leave reforms and women’s health. Danish Health Insurance Foundation, 52,000 Euros, 2018 to 2020, PI together with Emilie Courtin
  • Psychosocial working environment and the risk of diabetes, sickness absence and disability pension (PSA-DISPO), Danish Work Environment Foundation, 512,000 Euros, 2017 to 2020, co-PI
  • Negative social relations at work and risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease: mediating mechanisms, Danish Work Environment Foundation, 123,320 Euros, 2016 to 2019, PI
  • Psychosocial work environment in the Region, Danish Regions, 245,000 Euros, 2016 to 2018, PI
  • Childhood adversities and onset of type 1 diabetes, Innovation Foundation, 145,000 Euros, Company PhD to Jessica Linnéa Bengtsson, 2016 to 2019, Co-PI from the University.
  • Resourceful work: a multi-national study on health effects of improvement in work environment, Danish Work Environment Foundation, 520,000 Euros, 2016 to 2019, PI
  • Psychosocial work environment and healthy ageing, NordForsk, 2015 to 2020, 2.6 mill Euros, PI: Mika Kivimaki, co-PI for Work package 2
  • Social capital at hospitals – well-being, sickness absence and quality of work, Danish Work Environment Foundation, 306,000 Euros, 2014 to 2017, PI
  • Health consequences of the complex interplay between psychosocial work demands and demands in private life, Danish Work Environment Foundation, 435,000 Euros, 2013 to 2017, PI
  • Impaired sleep and cancer, Lundbeck Foundation, 13,500 Euros, 2011 to 2012, PI
  • Psychosocial risk factors for Parkinson’s Disease, Danish Health Insurance Foundation, 46,500 Euros, 2011 to 2012, PI
  • Impaired sleep and cardiovascular disease prognosis, Danish Health Insurance Foundation, 53,500 Euros, 2010 to 2012, PI
  • Psychosocial factors and cardiovascular disease: Understanding the mechanisms for men and women, Danish Heart Association, 53,500 Euros, 2010 to 2011, PI
  • Life course stress and risk of chronic obstructive lung disease, Lundbeck Foundation, 16,000 Euros, 2009 to 2010, PI
  • Stress and risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, Danish Heart Association, 13,500 Euros, 2009 to 2010, PI
  • Stress-related morbidity and mortality, Danish Research Council, 306,500 Euros, 2007 to 2011, PI  

ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

2012-2013

Scientific Committee Member for the IEA-IEE European Congress of Epidemiology 2013

2010-2011

Scientific Committee Member for the European Public Health Association Conference 2011

2005-

Scientific Committee Member for the annual Danish Stress Research Conference

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

2019-2023

Member of the management team of the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen

2014-2022

Director of Research Education Program in Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2010-2016

Member, Educational Board for Master of Public Health Science, University of Copenhagen

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

Visiting Professor and Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (5 months)

2022

Formalized collaborations around the DANLIFE cohort with Professors at Imperial College London, University College London, Harvard School of Public Health and INSERM in France

2018-

Visiting Professor, Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, USA  (6 weeks)

2017

Visiting Researcher, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Paris, France (4 weeks)

2014

Visiting Researcher, Department of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Sweden    (3 weeks)

2013

Visiting Researcher, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (4 weeks)

2012

Program Director for the Danish arm of the IDEAR (Integrated Datasets across Europe for Ageing Research) network, which has been established in order to improve research on chronic diseases and aging (www.idear-net.net). The IDEAR network brings together large, well-established cohort studies from five European countries and builds on a highly productive collaboration between researchers at University of Copenhagen; University College London, UK; Stockholm University and Karolinska Institute, Sweden; INSERM, France; and University of Turku, Finland

2010-

Research visit, the Bandim Health Project, Guinea-Bissau, West Africa (3 months)

2004

REVIEW ASSIGNMENTS

The Lancet Public Health, British Medical Journal, Psychological Medicine, Cancer Causes and Control, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Diabetologia, Steroids, Acta Oncologica, International Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Sleep Research, JAMA

COMMISIONS OF TRUST

2023-

Chair, Council on Health and Disease Prevention (Vidensråd for Forebyggelse), Denmark

2021-

Member, Scientific Advisory Board, the Health Data Hub, France

2021

Member, Scientific Expert Panel, Evaluation of the strategic program Health, Finnish Strategic Research Council

2021-2023

Vice-Chair, Council on Health and Disease Prevention (Vidensråd for Forebyggelse), Denmark

2020-

Steering Group Member for COVID-MINDS, which is a Wellcome Trust funded network of longitudinal studies on the global mental health impact of Covid-19

2020

Appointed member of expert panel designing the COVID-19 population testing and surveillance in Denmark for the Danish Health Authority

2020

External scientific reviewer, ERC starting grant

2019-

Advisory board member, Center for Digital Health, Danish National Board of Health, Denmark

2019-2020

Member, Scientific Evaluation Committee, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte)

2015-

Scientific Board Member, the Council on Health and Disease Prevention, Denmark

2014-2017

International Scientific Reviewer, National Cancer Institute, France

2011-2015

Scientific Board Member, Danish Epidemiologic Society, Denmark

2011

International Scientific Reviewer, Swedish Research Council

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

2023

Postcast ‘Digitalisering, SoMe og søvn’, online course on mental well-being, University of Copenhagen

2021

Podcast ‘Jorden Kalder – Stadig!’ Natural History Museum Denmark.

2020

Podcast ‘Loneliness in Coronatimes’ Science and Cocktails

2019

Developed a toolbox for ‘Balanced Screen Time’ with Danica Pension.

2019

Podcast ‘Mobiltelefonen ødelægger din nattesøvn’ The Independent Research Fund Denmark

2018

Citizen science week on sleep ‘Sover du godt tema’, a collaboration between the Danish National Broadcasting Company (Danmarks Radio) and the SmartSleep project.

SELECTED INVITED TALKS AND TEACHING

2022

Keynote speaker, ‘Health Complexity and Big Data’, Swedish Register-based Research Summit, Stockholm

2022

Keynote speaker, ‘Childhood adversity and Health: Results from the Danish Life Course Cohort, Stress Research Conference, Copenhagen

2022

Invited speaker, ‘Social phenomena and health: exploring the role of networks and group dynamics’, Population Scale Network Analysis (PopNet) seminar series, Institute of Advanced Studies, Amsterdam.

2020

Keynote speaker, ’Moderation in health inequality research’, Invited Workshop on Mechanisms in Social Inequalities in Health, Committee on health inequalities, European Academies of Science, Paris.

2019

Keynote speaker, ‘Complexity, causality and big data: the mix and match of modern epidemiology’ 9th Nordic Conference of Epidemiology and Register-based Health Research, Tampere, Finland

2019

Invited speaker, ‘Complexity and causality in Epidemiology’, Symposium, School of Public Health, Peking University

2019

Keynote speaker, ‘Childhood adversities across a life course: findings from a nationwide cohort’ Symposium, Institute of Child Health, University College London

2018

Invited expert, the National Stress Panel, National Ministry of Health, Denmark

2018

Keynote speaker, Danish Society for Obesity Research annual meeting, Nyborg

2017

Keynote speaker, 14th Stress Research Conference, Copenhagen

2017

Invited speaker, seminar series on epidemiologic methods, University of California, San Diego

2016

Panel discussant, Conference on Social Innovation, Copenhagen, Denmark

2015

Keynote speaker, National Working Environment Conference, Nyborg, Denmark

2015

Keynote speaker, 11th Parkinson’s Disease Meeting, Stockholm, Sweden

2013

Lecturer at a 3-day PhD level course on Causal Inference, Center for Social Inequity Studies, Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden

2013

Keynote-speaker at the Summer School of the national graduate research program in Public Health (GRASPH), Denmark

2012

Invited expert, workshop on psychosocial risk management in the EU- company experiences in the context of regulatory frameworks and politics at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Germany

2012

Invited expert on stress, National Ministry of Health, Denmark

TEACHING

I am responsible for PhD-level courses in Causal Inference and Introduction to Directed Acyclic Graphs at the University of Copenhagen. I also give lectures in stress and sleep epidemiology. I have been the main advisor for numerous bachelor and master students in Public Health Science and Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, and I have been on the assessment committee for seven PhD theses and one Doctoral Dissertation.

Uddannelse

cand.scient.san.publ., ph.d., Dr.med

ID: 928500