Research Bio
Dr. Silenzio co-directs the Laboratory of Informatics and Network Computational Studies (LINCS). LINCS is a joint effort of faculty, staff and students from the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. Its core consists of interdisciplinary research faculty from psychiatry, computer science, biostatistics and computational biology, and family and community medicine. The lab focuses on collaborative work with communities and community-based partners in the US, South Africa, and China, and with industry partners in social media.
Dr. Silenzio's work capitalizes on the increasing ubiquity of social media and Internet technologies to bring a public health and prevention research focus to the fields of social informatics, machine learning, and network analysis to support public health and public policy needs, risk factor research, and the translation of findings into prevention-oriented clinical and community initiatives. Currently Dr. Silenzio is completing a NIMH-funded, Research Career Award (K23) to study social media-based suicide prevention for LGBT adolescents and young adults, a "hidden population" at high risk for suicide related thoughts and behaviors. He is the P.I. of a three-year, NSF-funded research project to study the use of social media to reach typically "hidden populations" for prevention research, specifically focused on HIV and mental health risk factors among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the US. Through the support of the NIAID-funded Center for AIDS Research at the University of Rochester, Dr. Silenzio is P.I. of a pilot project to study social network-based data collection and intervention design for HIV and mental health risk factors for suicide among MSM in the Western Cape region of South Africa.
| Fellowship | Royal Society of Medicine | London, England (UK) |
2009 - Present |
| NIMH New Investigator Award | National Institute of Mental Health |
2005 |
| Fellowship | New York Academy of Medicine | New York, NY |
2001 - Present |
| New Faculty Orientation Award | Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation |
1996 |
| Scholarship | New Jersey Academy Of Family Physicians |
1990 - 1991 |
| Student Research Fellowship | New Jersey State Department of Health | Trenton, NJ |
1987 - 1987 |
| Distinction In Biology, "Hic Gradus Conlatus est Præclorus in Biologia" | University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA |
1986 |
2009 Aug
Silenzio VM, Duberstein PR, Tang W, Lu N, Tu X, Homan CM. "Connecting the invisible dots: reaching lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents and young adults at risk for suicide through online social networks." Social science & medicine (1982). 2009 Aug 0; 69(3):469-74. Epub 2009 Jun 18. |
2007 Nov
Silenzio VM, Pena JB, Duberstein PR, Cerel J, Knox KL. "Sexual orientation and risk factors for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adolescents and young adults." American journal of public health. 2007 Nov 0; 97(11):2017-9. Epub 2007 Sep 27. |
2007
North, S; Auinger, P; Silenzio, V; Fiscella, K; Klein, J. "Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Fatherhood". Journal of Adolescent Health. 2007; 40(2): S13. |
2003 Jun
Silenzio VM. "Anthropological assessment for culturally appropriate interventions targeting men who have sex with men." American journal of public health. 2003 Jun 0; 93(6):867-71. |
2002 Oct
Silenzio VM. "What is the role of complementary and alternative medicine in public health?" American journal of public health. 2002 Oct 0; 92(10):1562-4. |
