Ruijia Chen

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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 the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, beginning in Fall 2026.

 

I study how social and policy contexts shape age-related health outcomes, with a focus on cognitive aging and dementia.  Specifically, 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, (3) P01 Triangulation of Innovative Methods to End Alzheimer’s Disease (Co-I); and (4) F99/K00-funded research investigating how social networks and sleep disturbances contribute to cognitive aging.​

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I received my doctoral degree in Social Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and my master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. I completed the first two years of my postdoctoral training in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF. 

 

Here is a quick link to my Google Scholar profile.