People

Dustin T. Duncan is the Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where he directs the Columbia Spatial Epidemiology Lab and co-directs the department’s Social and Spatial Epidemiology Unit. Dr. Duncan is a Social and Spatial Epidemiologist, studying how specific neighborhood characteristics influence population health and health disparities. His research has a strong domestic (U.S.) focus, but recent work is beginning to span across the globe (including studies in Paris, London, and Nairobi). Dr. Duncan’s work appears in leading public health, epidemiology, medical, geography, criminology, demography, and psychology journals. Working in collaborations with scholars across the world, Dr. Duncan has over 250 high-impact articles (>120 first or senior-authored), book chapters and books cited over 9,200 times; Dr. Duncan’s research has appeared in major media outlets including U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. Dr. Duncan’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, and the Aetna Foundation.

Principal Investigator, Cannabis Use, PrEP and HIV Transmission Risk. Active

Principal Investigator, Characterizing Sleep, ART Adherence and Viral Suppression Among Black Sexual Minority Men. Active

Principal Investigator, Social Network and Technology-Driven Health Equity Research in NYC. Active

Principal Investigator, Activity Space Neighborhoods, Drug Use and HIV Among Black MSM in the Jackson, MS MSA. Completed

Principal Investigator, Feasibility Assessment of Real-Time Geospatial Methods to Explore Social and Spatial Contexts of Substance Use and HIV Risk in YMSM. Completed

Principal Investigator, Formative Research on How to Deliver Alcohol Interventions in the Context of HIV Prevention and Care among Black Sexual Minority Men. Completed

Principal Investigator, Health App Use among Verizon Users. Completed

Principal Investigator, Impact of Neighborhoods and Networks on HIV Prevention and Care Behaviors Among Black MSM in the Deep South. Completed

Principal Investigator, Impact of Social Cohesion and Social Capital in PrEP Uptake and Adherence Among Transwomen of Color. Completed

Principal Investigator, MyPEEPs Mobile LITE: Limited Interaction Efficacy Trial of MyPeeps Mobile to Reduce HIV Incidence and Better Understand the Epidemiology of HIV among YMSM. Completed

Principal Investigator, Neighborhood Activity Space, Drugs and HIV Risk Among Black MSM in the Deep South. Completed

Principal Investigator, Neighborhoods, Mobility and HIV Among Young MSM. Completed

Principal Investigator, PrEP Uptake and Adherence among Young Black MSM: Neighborhood and Network Determinants. Completed

Principal Investigator, Promoting Social Capital for Increased HIV Prevention and Care Among Sexual Minority Men in Nairobi, Kenya. Completed

Furuya A, Radix A, Bhatt KJ, Whalen A, Park SH, Contreras J, Scheinmann R, Herrera C, Watson K, Callandar D, Schneider JA, Lim S, Trinh-Shevrin C, Duncan DT (2025).
Multi-level correlates of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis discontinuation among English and Spanish-speaking transgender women of color in New York City: The TURNNT cohort study
International Journal of Transgender Health, 26 (4), 1246-1254. doi: 10.1080/26895269.2024.2402743. PMCID: PMC12573547.

Ghanooni D, Heise MJ, Sassaman K, Glidden DV, Martinson T, Mahuvakar S, Duncan DT, Horvath KJ, Hirshfield S, Williams R, Johnson MO, Grov C, Gandhi M, Carrico AW, Spinelli M (2025).
Suboptimal ART adherence, undetectable urine tenofovir, and higher C-reactive protein values
AIDS, 39 (13), 1975-1978. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000004288. PMCID: PMC12479088.

Furuya A, Whalen A, Radix A, Park SH, Contreras J, Scheinmann R, Herrera C, Watson K, Callander D, Brown KA, Schneider JA, Lim S, Trinh-Shevrin C, Duncan DT (2025).
Association between criminal legal system involvement and HIV prevention and care among transgender women of color: The TURNNT Cohort Study
LGBT Health [Epub 2025 Oct 10]. doi: 10.1177/23258292251386473.

Chen YT, Knox J, Almirol E, Wiger ER, Pagkas-Bather J, Huh J, Chung T, English D, Duncan DT, Schneider JA (2025).
Cannabis and alcohol co-use and HIV biomedical intervention engagement among Black sexual/gender minority people: A day-level analysis
American Journal of Preventive Medicine [Epub 2025 Oct 9]. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2025.108144.

Whalen AM, Furuya A, Contreras J, Schneider JA, Lim S, Trinh-Shevrin C, Radix A, Duncan DT (2025).
Discrimination and sleep health among transgender women of color in New York City: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations from the TURNNT cohort study
American Journal of Public Health, 115 (10), 1652-1661. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308208. PMCID: PMC12424491.