Amanda V. Bakian, Ph.D.

Amanda Bakian, PhD is a Research Associate Professor, environmental epidemiologist, biostatistician, and Director of the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (URADD). Her research aims to identify environmental, geographical, and familial contributors to the risk of psychiatric conditions including autism spectrum disorder and suicide. In particular, she is interested in how environmental exposures such as ambient air pollution interact with individual- and neighborhood-level characteristics to increase vulnerability to psychiatric conditions. As URADD Director, she oversees the operation of a public health surveillance system for autism and other developmental disabilities. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Utah Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring project, which aims to estimate the prevalence of autism in Utah and determine how characteristics of children with autism have changed over time. Dr. Bakian is also Principal Investigator of a five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health to investigate how mixtures of air pollution and weather exposures influence the risk of suicide.

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