UCLA Fielding School of Public Health graduate Matthew Coates receives Carolbeth Korn Scholar Award

A UCLA Fielding School of Public Health student has been recognized as the most outstanding graduating student at the Fielding School, ranked among the top public health graduate schools in the United States.

Matthew Coates, who received his doctoral (PhD) degree in epidemiology with the class of 2026, was named the 2026 recipient of the Carolbeth Korn Scholar Award, which recognizes the school's most outstanding graduating student. Each year's awardee is selected by the dean and academic leadership from across the school, based on scientific achievement, public service, and academic excellence.

“I have always known that I wanted to pursue a career that addressed social or health inequities, perhaps because of my parents’ careers in social work, education, and public health,” said Coates, who grew up in Atlanta and earned his undergraduate degree in neurobiology in 2013 from Harvard University and his master’s in public health in 2016 from the University of Washington.

“Prior to beginning my PhD in epidemiology at UCLA, I worked in global health research for eight years, and part of my work involved modeling the costs and population health impacts that could result from increasing the coverage of interventions to manage severe, chronic noncommunicable diseases in countries with low-resourced health systems,” Coates said. “My research at UCLA has developed and applied causal inference methods to cancer, vaccine, and perinatal epidemiology, and after my PhD, I hope to continue research in these areas, using and building on existing methods to bolster evidence for decision making in ways that improve population health equity.”

Supervised by Dr. Onyebuchi Arah, professor and interim chair in UCLA Fielding’s Department of Epidemiology, Coates recently completed his dissertation - “Augmented causal diagrams and estimands for causal inference in non-communicable and infectious disease epidemiology" – which is to be published in December. Along with his academic achievements at UCLA, including a 4.0 GPA in the doctoral program, Coates has co-authored 49 peer-reviewed research publications, an achievement faculty described as “extraordinary” for a doctoral student. These have ranged from research into the impact of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy to improving the use of electronic health records in medical research.

“These are metrics that would be impressive for a mid-career faculty member, let alone a doctoral candidate still completing his dissertation,” said Dr. Annette Regan, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a member of Coates’ PhD committee. “Selecting Matt for this honor recognizes a scholar who has already achieved what most aspire to over an entire career.”

Coates is among the co-authors of three related studies by an international team that found that COVID-19 vaccination during early pregnancy is not associated with an increased prevalence of major structural birth defects in infants.

“These birth defects were not elevated among infants born to people vaccinated in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy; moreover, the prevalence of birth defects was not modified by maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection, nor the receipt of other maternal vaccines,” said Regan, co-author and supervisor of all three research studies. “These results support the safety of COVID-19 vaccination in early pregnancy, and Matt’s contributions went far beyond a typical collaborator role.”

The UCLA Clinical and Translation Science Institute recently awarded him a TL1 Translational Science Fellowship, a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral training award to continue his work on integrating causal inference and systems science methods for clinical, population health, and translational science at UCLA.

“Matt exemplifies the qualities the Carolbeth Korn Scholar Award seeks to honor in our best of the best, namely exceptional scholarship, leadership, and promise for future impact,” Arah said. “Impressively, he is the most outstanding student this year and one of the most promising students ever to graduate from our school. Mentoring him has been a true privilege.”

Along with his academic and research achievements at UCLA, Coates has worked with clinicians and policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa, served as a mentor and teaching assistant at UCLA, served as a student leader at UCLA’s Practical Causal Inference Lab, and served as a member of the Epidemiology Student Association at UCLA Fielding.

“In my years of academic and research mentorship, and my role as chair of the Department of Epidemiology, I can confidently say that Mr. Coates stands out as one of the most exceptional students I have encountered,” said Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, a physician and distinguished professor in the Department of Epidemiology. “He is truly among the top 1% of doctoral candidates at UCLA, and exemplifies the values of leadership, collaboration, and service. I cannot think of a more deserving candidate.”