Monika Waszczuk, PhD

Monika Waszczuk, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Phone: (631) 638-1921
Email
Research Gate

Curriculum Vitae

 

Education:
BA (Hons) Pembroke College
University of Oxford
2011
MSc Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
King's College London
2012
PhD Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
King's College London
2015
 
Research Interests: I have a longstanding interest in understanding the pathogenesis and course of psychopathology, combining genetically informative, longitudinal and experimental designs in my research. After my undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, I completed the 1+3 programme at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. My MSc thesis focused on genetic and environmental influences on a developmental relationship between cognitive vulnerability and anxiety in children. Following on from this, during my PhD, I examined aetiological influences on the associations between anxiety, depression and several cognitive and affective processes, such as anxiety sensitivity, mindfulness and inhibitory control. My postgraduate education allowed me to develop an extensive expertise in advanced behavioural genetics. I have undertaken a number of approaches to quantitative genetic analyses including longitudinal, multivariate and liability threshold models in several large prospective cohort studies.
 
Current Research: I am currently an assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University. I am predominantly working on large epidemiological and clinical cohorts from the World Trade Center Wellness Program where I investigate long-term trajectories and the interplay between physical and mental illness experienced by trauma-exposed rescue and recovery workers who responded to the 9/11 disaster. One of my ongoing multidisciplinary research projects investigates the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and lower respiratory symptoms in the context of a clinical trial of a smoking cessation intervention. In my research I use a range of biostatistical techniques, such as multilevel modelling, that allow fitting sophisticated statistical models to longitudinal data.
 
Publications: Google Scholar