Yaqing Gao

Yaqing joined Oxford Population Health as a DPhil student and Jardine Scholar in October 2022. Her research focuses on risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia, as well as the underlying biological mechanisms, using large-scale, high-dimensional population data. She is supervised by Dr Thomas Littlejohns and Professor David Hunter. 

Prior to her DPhil, Yaqing obtained BSc and Master of Public Health (MPH) from Peking University. During her master’s studies, she investigated the social determinants of children’s cognitive development and young people’s psychological well-being in multiple low- and middle-income countries.

Yaqing also helped lead many field studies on maternal and child health in disadvantaged rural areas of Central and Western China. She also collaborated with scholars from South Asia conducting research on social inequities of vaccination.