Successful PhD defense in the GAP research group
Robin Mzati Sinsamala from the Greenness, Air Pollution, and health (GAP) research group at the University of Bergen successfully defended his PhD thesis on 20 April 2026.
By: Shanshan Xu
Published:
Sinsamala defended his thesis, 鈥淚ntergenerational environmental exposures and lung health: From single exposures to the urban exposome,鈥 as part of the Life-GAP research project at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care (IGS).
The dissertation examines how parental exposures before conception and maternal exposures during pregnancy may influence offspring lung health. Using data from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) study and its offspring cohort, RHINESSA, the work investigates how exposure to air pollution and residential greenness during these periods is associated with birth outcomes and respiratory health in offspring. It also includes a study from the Barcelona Life Study Cohort (BiSC), applying an urban exposome approach to assess how multiple environmental exposures during pregnancy jointly influence a range of early-life respiratory outcomes.
The dissertation was evaluated by an expert committee consisting of Professor from Queen Mary University of London, UK, and researcher from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Associate Professor Dagrun Sletteb酶 Daltveit served as chair of the evaluation committee. Professor 脴ystein Ariansen Haaland chaired the trial lecture and the public defense.
Prior to the defense, Sinsamala delivered his trial lecture on 鈥淢apping the Urban Exposome: Integrating Environmental, Social, and Behavioral Determinants to Explain Health Inequalities in Urban Populations,鈥 where he addressed how complex urban exposures contribute to health inequalities.
Sinsamala has been working as a PhD fellow at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care (IGS) at the University of Bergen since April 2022. His main supervisor was Professor Ane Johannessen, with Associate Professor from the University of Verona, Italy, and Professor Randi J. Bertelsen as co-supervisors.
Sinsamala鈥檚 work contributes to a growing understanding of how environmental factors across generations influence respiratory health and highlights the importance of integrated exposome approaches to studying urban environments. His full dissertation is available in the .听