Urban Design and Health

[deleted1142566]

How can I get into research about city planning and public health?

For example, the effect of walkable towns/villages on obesity. Or effect of larger SUVs in MVCs involving pedestrians (raised bumpers = hitting more vital organs = more deadly?). Or effect of slower road design on road fatalities. Or effect of cars vs public transit vs bikes on air/land/water pollution.

I can’t find much about this area of research, since it’s more in the area of public health and not basic science research. So how can I get involved in this?

I love medicine but also love environmental engineering/urban planning. And so I want to work at the intersection of the two.

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[wondervisions]

Look at researchers in public health departments?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Well, knock your socks off starting with Choosing the Planning Profession . Then go to civil and environmental engineering (as you noted). Check out the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Healthy Communities .

 

[poptrop]

There are lots of MDs who work in this field! Definitely look into faculty who do environmental/public health research. You could certainly apply MD/PhD with this sort of background, but depends on if you actually want to do the PhD in this field. It's certainly possible to do it without the PhD though, just depends on you.