Susan Searles Nielsen, PhD, MS

Most of Dr. Nielsen’s research is on environmental and occupational neuroepidemiology. She has a particular interest in Parkinson disease and parkinsonism more generally, with a special emphasis of understanding etiology of disease. Dr. Nielsen is also interested in understanding contributors to smoking initiation, nicotine dependence, and pediatric and adult brain tumors. Collaborating with researchers at Washington University and other institutions, most of her projects are case-control or cohort studies. These include both studies that involve humans as well as big data. Although most of her work is focused on understanding etiologic associations, creating predictive models of neurological outcomes are also an active area of research.