糖心Vlog传媒

Faculty Spotlight - Dr. Maryam Karimi

Q&A with Maryam Karimi PhD, MPA, MS

Director of Research, Associate Professor

1. What brought you to the U of M School of Public Health?
   The vision and mission of the U of M School of Public Health were the primary reasons that brought me here. I was inspired by the strong commitment to innovation, research excellence, student success, and community impact. The opportunity to help build a growing school, expand interdisciplinary research, mentor future public health leaders, and address important health challenges in 糖心Vlog传媒 and beyond made this a very meaningful next step in my career.
   
   
2. What is the broad focus of your research?
   My research focuses on understanding how environmental factors such as air pollution, climate change, urban heat, and flooding affect human health, particularly in vulnerable communities. I use geospatial tools and innovative technologies to identify risks, improve prevention strategies, and support healthier environments. One of my key projects is CanAiry, a wearable health device designed to monitor environmental exposures and respiratory health in real time. It helps connect a person鈥檚 surroundings鈥攕uch as air quality and temperature鈥攖o their breathing health, with the goal of preventing asthma, COPD flare-ups, and other respiratory problems while improving quality of life.
   
   
3. What inspired you to pursue this particular area of research?
   My interest in environmental public health was shaped by my early experiences growing up in Queens, New York, where I observed how neighborhood conditions, environmental exposures, and access to resources can influence health outcomes. That interest became more focused through a bridge program that led me into doctoral training at CUNY in Earth and Environmental Sciences. During my PhD, I developed a strong foundation in environmental systems, exposure science, and spatial analysis, which highlighted the significant impacts of air pollution, urban heat islands, and climate-related risks on vulnerable populations. Later in my career, the guidance of outstanding mentors and my own research experiences further solidified this path, reinforcing my commitment to developing data-driven solutions that advance health equity, environmental resilience, and community well-being.
   
   
4. What is the most exciting project you are currently working on?
   One of the most exciting projects I am currently working on is CanAiry, an innovative wearable health technology designed to monitor environmental exposures and respiratory health in real time. CanAiry integrates physiological breathing data with environmental conditions to help individuals鈥攑articularly those with asthma, COPD, and other chronic respiratory conditions鈥攂etter understand how their environment affects their health.
   
   The importance of this work lies in the fact that many respiratory flare-ups are triggered by environmental factors that often go undetected until symptoms worsen. CanAiry is designed to provide early-warning insights, support remote patient monitoring, and enable healthcare providers to make more timely interventions, medication adjustments, and preventive care decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and health disparities while improving quality of life for vulnerable populations. This project also represents an important intersection of public health, biomedical innovation, engineering, and translational research.
   
   
5. How does your research impact or benefit the broader community or public health field? How do you envision your research evolving in the next few years?
   My research helps communities better prepare for environmental risks, reduce exposure, and improve health outcomes. In the next few years, I see it expanding through AI-driven tools, smart technologies, and stronger community partnerships. 
   
   
6. What is the coolest training or program you鈥檝e been a part of, or your favorite conference you鈥檝e attended?
   One of the most impactful programs I have participated in was the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, a highly competitive national program designed to help researchers translate scientific discoveries into commercially viable technologies. Being selected for I-Corps was especially meaningful because admission is competitive and limited to innovations with strong translational potential.
   
   Through the program, I conducted extensive customer discovery interviews with clinicians, patients, healthcare administrators, and industry stakeholders to assess the unmet market need for CanAiry, a wearable respiratory and environmental health monitoring platform. This process helped validate major gaps in current care systems, including limited real-time patient monitoring, fragmented exposure and health data, delayed clinical intervention, and barriers to chronic disease self-management for asthma and COPD patients.
   
   I-Corps also provided advanced training in technology commercialization, value proposition development, regulatory pathways, reimbursement considerations, intellectual property strategy, and go-to-market planning. The experience created opportunities to participate in additional accelerator and entrepreneurship programs, further advancing CanAiry from an academic prototype toward a scalable digital health solution with strong public health impact.
   
   
7. What is your favorite self-authored manuscript?
   One of my favorite self-authored manuscripts is my early PhD work on urban heat islands and modeling neighborhood-level heat hotspots across New York City. This study was especially meaningful because it was one of the first efforts to analyze urban heat island patterns at the microscale, block-by-block level across an entire major city. At the time, that level of spatial resolution and citywide heat vulnerability modeling had not been done before, and both my research and the resulting publications were pioneering contributions in this area. The work helped demonstrate how environmental exposures can vary dramatically within neighborhoods and provided an important foundation for using high-resolution data to guide urban planning, climate adaptation, and public health interventions.
   
   
8. What kind of research would you like to do that you haven't yet had the opportunity to do?
   I would like to lead the development of next-generation precision public health systems that integrate satellite remote sensing, wearable biosensors, geospatial analytics, and real-time environmental monitoring to predict disease risk before symptoms occur. I am especially interested in building global early-warning platforms for climate-sensitive health threats鈥攕uch as heat stress, air pollution exposure, respiratory disease exacerbations, and disaster-related health risks鈥攖hat can guide targeted interventions, policy decisions, and resource allocation for vulnerable populations worldwide.
   
9. Are there any publications, awards, or recognitions you would like us to include in the spotlight?
   Yes鈥攔ecent highlights include leading and contributing to an externally funded research portfolio exceeding $1.9 million, supported through NIH-STTR, USDA, and USDA-NIFA, with a focus on environmental health, biomedical innovation, and climate resilience.
   
   Soon after joining the University of 糖心Vlog传媒, I received my NIH Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award, which was my first STTR grant and a significant milestone in advancing my translational research program.
   CanAiry represents the successful translation of academic research into a scalable precision health technology with strong clinical, community, and public health applications.
   
   Additional scholarly recognition includes publishing 9 peer-reviewed journal articles in 2025 and surpassing 1,035 citations, reflecting sustained scientific productivity, interdisciplinary impact, and the growing visibility of my research nationally and internationally.