Balhara, of Philadelphia, is among 65 second- and third-year students selected from 383 candidates nominated by 181 colleges and universities nationwide. Scholars are recognized for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to the environment or to Native American nations. Each scholar will be awarded as much as $7,000.
Her academic work focuses on how scientific evidence is interpreted and used in environmental health and public health decision-making. She works with mentors including Quayshawn Spencer, Jordana Cohen, Brahim Chaqour, and Steven Weitzman. She has served as an AmeriCorps teacher and mentor to students from low-income backgrounds, developing educational programming on health, environmental exposure, and prevention. She has researched endocrine-disrupting chemicals and their impacts on human health, with a focus on how chemical exposures intersect with diet and risk-relevant evidence assessment. As a Fulbright United Kingdom Summer Institute participant at the University of Birmingham, she studied British culture and examined environmental and health systems in the U.K. with the goal of applying those perspectives to public-serving work in the United States.
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Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.
