The University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions has named the 2025 recipients of the college’s Ph.D. Fellowships in Artificial Intelligence. The program is designed to foster doctoral students’ training and research in AI and encourage fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.
In the short term, the awards offer an opportunity for academic growth, professional networking, results dissemination and research support for both mentors and students. The long-term goal is to build national and international recognition of AI innovation within the college’s doctoral programs.
The following Ph.D. students are recipients of 2025 PHHP AI fellowship funding, which is supported by the Robert G. Frank Endowed Professorship.
Zhicheng Zhang
Program: Ph.D. in public health, environmental health concentration
Project: Zhang aims to develop a more accurate way to predict how long it takes for certain drugs to leave the bodies of animals used for food production. Current models don’t account for different routes of administration across various animal species. Through a new approach that combines machine learning with traditional quantitative structure–activity relationship models, Zhang plans to create a more reliable model that will help ensure food safety and speed up the process of determining safe withdrawal times for millions of animals each year.
Mentor: Zhoumeng Lin, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., C.P.H., associate professor, Department of Environmental and Global Health
“What excites me most about being part of the AI Fellow program is the opportunity to deepen my understanding of AI and explore how it can transform my current research,” Zhang said. “Since joining Dr. Lin’s lab and engaging with both coursework and ongoing discussions about the rapid rise of tools like ChatGPT, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the potential of AI to revolutionize scientific inquiry. This program represents a unique chance for me to integrate cutting-edge AI techniques into my work — especially in areas like predictive modeling and drug delivery — and to contribute meaningfully to the next wave of innovation at the intersection of AI and biomedical research.”
Fengdi Zhao
Program: Ph.D. in biostatistics
Project: Zhao’s project focuses on developing new AI and statistical tools for analyzing complex genomic data. By leveraging single-cell multiome technologies that measure multiple layers of information from the same cell, his work focuses on uncovering how gene regulation varies across cell types, especially in rare cell populations. These methods will generate more detailed gene regulatory maps, advancing our understanding of disease mechanisms and supporting the development of more precise therapies.
Mentor: Li Chen, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Biostatistics
“I’m honored to be selected as a PHHP AI Fellow,” Zhao said. “This fellowship will greatly support my research on applying AI to study gene regulation using single-cell multiome data. I hope it will help advance computational tools to better understand disease mechanisms and contribute to biomedical discovery.”
Honorable mention
Heng Ge
Program: Ph.D. in biostatistics
Ge will receive support to cover conference-related or journal publication fees for an accepted AI abstract or paper. His dissertation research focuses on creating an artificial intelligence tool known as a Penalized Kernel Neural Network, or PKNN, that can analyze large amounts of genetic data quickly and accurately, with the goal of better understanding Alzheimer’s disease.
Mentor: Qing Lu, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biostatistics
“Presenting this work at conferences will allow me to engage with AI and genomics researchers, gain valuable feedback on the PKNN method, and explore potential collaborations to extend its applications,” Ge said. “Publishing in peer-reviewed journals will further validate and disseminate the method, increasing its impact as a scalable AI tool for genetic discovery. This visibility and academic engagement are essential for translating methodological innovation into broader scientific utility.”