New College of Florida student Rosemary Mejia has earned a Fulbright award to study epidemiology in Peru. Mejia will conduct research at the Sede Cusco Tropical Medicine Institute at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia for one year, beginning in mid-August. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia is one of the top medical schools in Peru, and one of the major producers and publishers of scientific research in the country.

The Sede Cusco program focuses on epidemiological, clinical and translational research of neglected tropical diseases, specifically Fasciola hepatica (a parasitic infection that affects the liver). While researching this disease in Cusco’s rural communities, Mejia will use existing databases to perform a geographic information system (GIS) analysis of the spatial distribution of fascioliasis.