The OSU Health and Environment Learning and Modeling (HELM) initiative brings together researchers and trainees to better understand how human and environmental systems interact. Led by the College of Public Health, HELM connects faculty from across The Ohio State University—including the Colleges of Engineering and Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences—to foster collaboration, share expertise, and develop innovative approaches to today’s most pressing health and environmental challenges.
PURPOSE
HELM serves as a collaborative hub for interdisciplinary research and education on coupled human–environment systems. The initiative supports faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral scholars, and students working to understand how environmental, biological, behavioral, and social processes interact to shape population’s health and sustainability outcomes.
HELM provides infrastructure for cross-college collaboration, building on The Ohio State’s existing institutional strengths, it promotes methodological innovation, and supports training of the next generation of researchers working at the human–environment interface.
HELM aims to position The Ohio State University as national leader in theory-guided, computational, and data-driven research on human–environment systems. The initiative seeks to generate actionable insights for public health and environmental decision-making while strengthening interdisciplinary scholarship across participating colleges.
PARTICIPANTS
Administratively, HELM is led by the College of Public Health and involves faculty from the College of Engineering and the College of Food Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, with strong connections to campus partners including the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), the Translational Data Analytics Institute (TDAI), and the Sustainability Institute. HELM also collaborates with external partners including Neptune and Company, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Division of Big Data Science at Korea University