We are pleased to announce that Rachael K. Ross, PhD, MPH, Research Associate in the Division of Epidemiology, has been awarded the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize Paper Award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER). This award recognizes an outstanding scholarly publication by a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Ross received this award for her paper, "Transporting Results from a Trial to an External Target Population When Trial Participation Impacts Adherence", which was published in the journal Epidemiology in January 2026. As part of the honor, Dr. Ross will present her work during a plenary session at the SER annual meeting.
Dr. Ross is a pharmacoepidemiologist whose research uses real-world health data and data from clinical trials to improve treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), with a focus on medications such as buprenorphine and methadone. In addition to this applied research, Dr. Ross develops and assesses causal inference methods that address challenges such as missing data, measurement error, and generalizability. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina (with a minor in Biostatistics) and her MPH from Emory University.
She is currently supported by a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), through which she studies access to extended-release buprenorphine and optimal use of different formulations to support more personalized treatment decisions.
This achievement highlights Dr. Ross's significant contributions to the field and her ongoing impact on epidemiologic research.