Dr. Jinying Zhao joined the Department of Epidemiology this month as Dean’s Professor and Director of the Division of Genetic Epidemiology under the pre-eminence initiative. She received her MD at the Zhengzhou University School of Medicine in China (1989), her first PhD in Molecular Genetics at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (1996), and her second PhD in Statistical Genetics & Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (2005). Dr. Zhao’s research focuses primarily on genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics. Dr. Zhao serves as the Principal Investigator of four large, ongoing NIH-funded R01 projects: 1) Telomere attrition and diabetes risk in American Indians (funded by NIDDK); 2) Epigenetic determinants for major depression: a monozygotic discordant twin study (funded by NIMH); 3) Novel metabolic predictors of diabetes in American Indians (funded by NIDDK); and 4) Genome-wide profiling of brain DNA hydroxymethylome in Alzheimer’s disease (funded by NIA). Prior to coming to the University of Florida, Dr. Zhao was a faculty member at Tulane University and Emory University. We are excited to have her as part of our team.