[October 2025] APHA Awards

A Message from Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah, Founding Director of Public Health Microbiology Foundation:

I am here in the beautiful city of Minneapolis for attending the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). I am forever grateful to the great colleagues in APHA for nominating and selecting me for these two awards this year:

2024 Excellence in Climate Leadership Award. By the Center for Climate Health and Equity of APHA. The center additionally provided funding to implement additional climate-change-related initiatives in the Public Health Microbiology Foundation in the next 12 months.

2024 Catherine Cowel Award, Food and Nutrition Section of APHA. In recognition of excellence in administration, planning, mentoring, and team building in public health nutrition to meet the needs of urban populations and young children.

These are certainly lifetime honors and I look forward to many years of service to this beloved and respected organization. I think these awards also belong to all the hard-working staff and students of the Public Health Microbiology program, especially Ms. Ranju Kafle, Mr. Niraj Ghimire, Mr. Shahid Chowdhury, Ms. Sandhya Thapa, Dr. Yusef Lighari, and Ms. Junice Sibley who are showing exemplary dedication every day towards their research and outreach projects.

Dr. Aliyar hopes his students, friends, and colleagues find this post motivational to consider incorporating more physical activities every week in their schedules.
 

This month, he had the chance to compete in two open-water swimming competitions. On September 8, he completed a 2-mile event in the Tennessee River near Hobbs Island in Huntsville, AL, finishing the race in 1 hour 09:50 min. On September 22, he completed a 10K (6.2 miles) race starting from the Tennessee Riverboat in Downtown Knoxville, TN with a Time of 3 hours 15:22 min.
 

According to the CDC’s physical activity guidelines, most individuals would need to do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise (or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise) per week plus two sessions of weight training to maintain our health. You can access great information about exercise recommendations here:
https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/physical-activity-guidelines
 

It is certainly possible to be a busy individual with family obligations and at the same dedicate enough time and energy for weekly exercises. “Health is certainly the true wealth.”
 

Photo courtesy: Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah, in Tennessee River, Huntsville, AL September 8, 2024.

This below article entitled “Jefferson and Cyrus,” is authored by Dr. Richard N. Frye, history professor of Harvard University. In honor of Cyrus the Great, the author of the world's first charter of human rights, and champion of diversity and equity, Public Health Microbiology program is pleased to accept nomination for 2024 Positive Impact Cyrus Award. Applications are accepted by nomination of current TSU students. TSU graduate and undergraduate students interested in nominating another current TSU student for this award could submit their nomination using the below link before 11:59 pm of October 10, 2024:

https://tnstateu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_erE5a7Kh2wqAYB0

The above-mentioned article could be accessed at:

https://richardfrye.org/files/Thomas_Jefferson_and_Cyrus_the_Great.pdf

The director of our program, Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah was a speaker, as part of a multi-institution seminar series this August. The seminar had more than 200 registrants and the recording of the webinar can be accessed at:

https://foodsystemsnutrition.org/event/webinar-bridging-food-security-nutrition-and-health-issues/

Very pleased to share with you that Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah, director of the Public Health Microbiology Foundation in Nashville is the 2024 recipient of Catherine Cowell Award from the beloved society, American Public Health Association (APHA). This award “recognizes excellence and achievement in administration, planning, mentoring, and team building in public health nutrition, including meeting the special needs of urban populations and young children.”

Receiving this award, Dr. Aliyar said “I am humbled and forever grateful to the APHA Food and Nutrition colleagues for their nomination and selection and looking forward to many years of service to our profession and to this beloved organization.”

The National Board of Public Health Examiners has started a wonderful new webinar series for 2024 and so far 6 great one-hour presentations are scheduled for this year. Director of our program, Dr. Fouladkhah is enthusiastically serving as the speaker for the month of April. Below are details of his presentation. Students, staff, members, friends, and stakeholders of the Public Health Microbiology Foundation are all cordially invited to join the session:

Public Health Microbiology in the 21st Century Under the Landscape of Changing Climate

Presented by Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah, PhD, MS, MPH, CFS, CPH
April 10, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET (2  p.m. CDT i.e the time in Nashville)

This link below has more information about all the sessions including the Zoom link to join my talk.

https://www.nbphe.org/nbphes-wednesday-webinar-series/

Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah has co-authored a book chapter in the below book that was published a few days ago. The book is a wonderful resource for teaching and for researchers and in the book chapter discusses approaches for being an intelligent consumer of public health literature and for evidence-based decision-making. 

Book Chapter: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Public Health (Chapter 16). Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah, Minoo Bagheri.

Book: Statistical Approaches for Epidemiology: from concept to application. Amal K. Mitra.