Cover Letter 1 [Scholarship Offered]
When I read about the Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology (CPE) research master program and the accompanying PhD opportunity, I was very excited. Coming from Nursing science background, I joined the Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology program because I wanted to be involved in epidemiological research instead. This is a new paradigm shift and a golden opportunity to accomplish my goal. I therefore opted to complete my master thesis at the department of Epidemiology. Over the past year I have been happy to find that this has been a very good choice indeed. Beyond the knowledge I acquired from the CPE program, I developed the skills to work with large data sets and translating them to useful output that can be usable for clinicians. The most striking question for me was that the reason why psychiatric diseases and somatic diseases co-occur, and what factors determine the favorable and poor outcomes of these diseases. In this regard, I studied the comorbidity of depression and diabetes. In addition, as part of my thesis, I worked on identifying shared genetic and environmental risk factors of diabetes and schizophrenia.
My proposed PhD project builds upon the work I have done so far and aims to answer some of the questions that emerged over the past year. Despite the abundant cross-sectional studies conducted to date, use of genetic data is limited, longitudinal studies are scarce and the sample was small; as a result, conclusions are ambiguous. However, technological advancement and availability of big cohort data with long duration of follow-up are a good fortune to begin to address these issues.
Given the high burden of mental illness, one of my utmost long-term goals is to pursue a successful academic career in psychiatric epidemiologic research particularly schizophrenia and somatic comorbidities. I believe that the sole reason for pursuing a more advanced research is to approach with the moment of facing a new challenge and the need to solve it. Continuing my PhD will advance my knowledge and to produce evidence about several genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors attributed to the comorbidity of schizophrenia and somatic diseases.
It is my life ambition to conduct a high-quality demand based epidemiologic research. I believe that scientific research and its methods provide an unrivaled framework in which the problems of the physical world can be determined, and found solutions. In addition, discovering the implied meanings behind the scientific theories always encourages me to think and research the subject matter. I believe that the quality of life can’t be improved with possession, but through contribution. In this context, my effort to contribute to evidence-based personalized medicine shall be one of the greatest satisfaction in my life. Therefore, this PhD program is the golden opportunity to share extensive research experience to conduct the best research, manage projects, and expand my academic career for the future.
