The International AIDS Society (IAS) and NIDA have awarded postdoctoral fellowships to scientists from China and Indonesia. IAS and NIDA cosponsor the fellowships, which provide 18 months of training with an expert in drug abuse-related HIV to advance scientific understanding of the linkages between drug use and HIV while fostering multinational research. The 2011 fellows are:
- Former NIDA INVEST Fellow Huaihui Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist at the Shanghai Yangpu District Mental Health Center, China, will carry out a brief assessment and a modular, education-based intervention for methadone maintenance treatment patients who are at risk of HIV infection in Shanghai, China. Her INVEST fellowship mentor, Richard S. Schottenfeld, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, also will serve as her mentor for the IAS/NIDA Fellowship.
- Working with Scott Burris, J.D., Temple University School of Law, Jinmei Meng, Ph.D., of China will work on HIV, drug use, and the law in China, investigating the penalization of drug use and HIV risks of injecting drug users.
- Iko Safika, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the South East Asia Infectious Disease Clinical Research Unit in Indonesia, will study depression, drug use, and high-risk sexual behaviors among men who have sex with men and transgendered individuals in Jakarta, Indonesia. Timothy Johnson, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), will be her mentor. Dr. Safika received her doctorate from UIC as a Fogarty International Center AIDS International Training and Research Program trainee.
IAS-NIDA Fellowship Award recipients, left to right: NIDA Director Nora Volkow, Huaihui Zhang, Iko Safika, IAS President Elly Katabira, Jinmei Meng, Scott Burris, and Richard Schottenfeld. ©IAS/Marcus Rose/Worker's Photos