Meet the faculty members who are part of the Center for Research on Tobacco and Health.

Meet the staff who support the Center for Research on Tobacco and Health.

Penn State TCORS Career Enhancement Core

Training Program

The overall goal of the Penn State Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS) Career Enhancement Training Program is to develop knowledge and skills in tobacco regulatory science (TRS) to advance promising scholars toward independent careers in TRS research. Our priorities are to facilitate a pipeline of TRS training for diverse investigators across career stages, foster specialized expertise in tobacco addiction and biomarkers of health and disease, enhance the regulatory impact of TRS research, and facilitate a culture of collaborative and multidisciplinary TRS research between TCORS faculty and trainees.

The training program is open to the following:

• Undergraduate students
  • Interested students should apply via the Summer Undergraduate Research Internship Program (SURIP).
    • SURIP is intended for college students who are interested in pursuing a career in the biological sciences.
    • SURIP provides a variety of career development and scientific research seminars are offered weekly as part of SURIP. Each summer’s program concludes with the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, where students present their work.
  • Predoctoral scholars
    • Interested students should apply via the Penn State DrPH Program, PhD in Epidemiology Program, PhD in Biostatistics Program, or PhD in Neuroscience or Biomedical Sciences Programs
      • Tuition coverage and stipend provided on competitive basis.
    • Contact Career Enhancement Core leadership to inform of application
    • Medical students enrolled at Penn State College of Medicine at Hershey or University Park can apply for summer internships through the Medical Student Research Program.
  • Postdoctoral scholars
    • Open positions will be posted through the Penn State careers website.
  • Early Career/New Investigators (must be current faculty member at Penn State)
    • Complete application for current faculty

Scholars in the training program will participate in the following:

• Mentor-directed TRS research
  • Scholars will be matched with a faculty mentor to work on a TRS-related project. Scholars will develop an individual develop plan (IDP) to identify learning objectives and goals for the project. In addition, scholars will complete annual mentoring evaluations.
• Didactic and laboratory-based education (pre- and postdoctoral scholars only)
  • Required coursework in tobacco regulatory science
  • Optional coursework in grant writing (PHS 510) or secondary data analysis (PHS 507)
• Collaborative learning
  • Participate in Penn State TCORS monthly seminars
  • Participate in Penn State TCORS writing group
  • Participate in CASEL journal club
  • Participate in cross-training events with scholars from other TCORS
  • Attend/present at annual TRS conference in October in Bethesda, Md. (pre- and postdoctoral scholars only)
  • Develop one presentation on area of expertise to be added to the shared library on the TRS Knowledge Center (pre- and postdoctoral scholars only)

Current Trainees

View past TCORS scholars

Pilot Grant Program

The Penn State TCORS Career Enhancement Core will offer two types of pilot award opportunities.

Internal Awards – for up to $50,000—to support rigorous and feasible TRS research proposals from postdoctoral fellows and new or early-career faculty that fit within or are complementary to the Penn State TCORS theme

Collaborative Awards – for up to $50,000 –  to support multidisciplinary projects among faculty investigators, with special consideration for studies proposing collaboration between two or more TCORS or emerging issues responsive to the Center for Rapid Surveillance of Tobacco (CRST).

Pilots are expected to be completed in 2 years. All proposals must identify a TCORS faculty mentor to provide guidance on translation to tobacco regulation and to facilitate successful completion.

The Penn State Center for Research on Tobacco and Health originally began in 2013 when investigators at Penn State (PIs: Joshua Muscat and Jonathan Foulds) were awarded one of 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS), a five-year, $20 million center grant, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. The general purpose of the TCORS grants are to support scientific research to inform the regulation of tobacco products. The overarching goal of the Penn State TCORS was to understand the health impact of tobacco-harm reduction policies in vulnerable (e.g. low socioeconomic status, mental disorders) and minority populations.

The TCORS 2013 program included three separate projects:

• Switching to progressively reduced nicotine content cigarettes in smokers with lower socioeconomic status (PIs: Joshua Muscat and Kimberly Horn, George Washington University)
• Reduced nicotine cigarettes in smokers with mood and anxiety disorders (PIs:  Jonathan Foulds and Eden Evins, Harvard University)
• Switching to reduced oxidant or nicotine content cigarettes in smokers (PI: John Richie)

In 2023, the Center for Research on Tobacco and Health was awarded one of seven TCORS grants (PIs: Joshua Muscat and Jonathan Foulds), which aims to better understand how physical design and chemical constituents affect the toxicity and addictiveness of nicotine and tobacco products.  The TCORS 2023 program will draw on the expertise of many researchers at Penn State including biochemists, statisticians, clinical psychologists, health behaviorists and epidemiologists.

The TCORS 2023 program includes three separate projects:

• Translational Studies on Temperature and Solvent Effects on Electronic Cigarette-Derived Oxidants (PIs:  Zachary Bitzer and Thomas Spratt)
• Oxidative Stress and Harmful Constituent Levels Associated with Little Cigars (PI: Joshua Muscat)
• Randomized Placebo-controlled Trial of Nicotine Pouches in Smokers (PIs:  Jonathan Foulds and Jason Robinson, University of Texas MD Anderson)

A component of each of the TCORS grants is to incorporate training and funding opportunities for early career, non-tenured scientists interested in pursuing tobacco regulatory science research. Scholars in the TCORS 2013 program completed a series of courses on tobacco regulation, the epidemiology of smoking and biomarkers, and participated in networking events with scholars from other TCORS institutions. The program also supported several postdoctoral scholars who have now moved onto to scientific careers in FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products or as tenure-track professors.

Additionally, the TCORS 2013 program provided pilot funding to 15 Penn State investigators. Projects funded ranged from studies evaluating the impact of electronic cigarette use among HIV positive smokers to evaluating free radical production from charcoal filters.

The newly funded TCORS will again announce pilot award opportunities.  Openings for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral positions will also be posted.  Both of these mechanisms will advance the careers of upcoming and early stage researchers who are interested in pursuing tobacco regulatory science.

Finally, the Penn State Center for Research on Tobacco and Health is designed to facilitate and coordinate not only the goals and accomplishments of the TCORS grants, but also all research on nicotine and tobacco conducted by Penn State faculty.  The goal of the Center is to produce synergy and create collaborations between interdisciplinary researchers who are interested in understanding addiction and reducing the health effects of nicotine and tobacco products.

Nicotine Dependence Index

The Penn State Nicotine Dependence Index was developed by Dr. Jonathan Foulds in 2011.

This 10-item scale (with scores ranging from 0 to 20) was developed to measure nicotine dependence across all nicotine product types, and an adapted version was the first dependence measure designed to evaluate electronic cigarette dependence.

The index is available for use by clinicians and researchers at other institutions using the proper citation.

The following list shows a selection of current research grant funding for Center for Research on Tobacco and Health faculty members.

The following list shows recent publications by Center for Research on Tobacco and Health faculty and staff members.

The following list shows selected mentions of the work of Center for Research on Tobacco and Health investigators in local and national media.