Ruijia Chen

I am a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health and an incoming tenure-track Assistant Professor in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. I completed my doctorate in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Harvard University and MS in Social Policy from the the University of Pennsylvania .

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I study how social and policy contexts shape age-related health outcomes, with a focus on cognitive aging and dementia. My interest in this area is rooted in understanding how structural and life course factors drive health disparities later in life. ​My research combines social epidemiology with advanced quantitative methods to examine how social disadvantage, including financial strain, discrimination, and social isolation, affects cognitive health. I use large longitudinal datasets, causal inference approaches, and cross-national comparisons to identify drivers of disparities and inform policy solutions.

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Current projects include (1) K99/R00-funded research evaluating the impact of social policies on dementia risk and disparities, (2) Alzheimer’s Association-funded work on how social isolation shapes dementia risk before and after the pandemic, and (3) F99/K00-funded research investigating how social networks and sleep disturbances contribute to cognitive aging.

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Alongside my research, I am deeply committed to fostering transparent, rigorous science and to creating inclusive environments through interdisciplinary collaboration and training the next generation of scholars.

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Here is a quick link to my Google Scholar profile.