Research Assistant Professor

Email: asiddhanta@uh.edu 
Phone: 713-743-3351

Biography

Dr. Ankita Siddhanta is a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Population Health and Department of Sociology at the University of Houston. She holds a Ph.D. , M.S. And M.Phil degree in Demography/Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India. She also holds a Master’s degree in Geography from Presidency University, Kolkata. Her doctoral research focused on undocumented migration and STI/HIV vulnerability among Bangladeshi migrants in Kolkata, India. Dr. Siddhanta has also completed a training program in Population and Development at Brown University. 

Dr. Siddhanta was a NIH AIM-AHEAD Leadership fellow in 2022 and NIH AIM-AHEAD Research Fellow in 2023. 

Dr. Siddhanta has worked extensively on large-scale public health studies, including the Demographic and Health Survey (India) and the Longitudinal Aging Study in India, a collaborative initiative involving Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and IIPS. She also contributed to the "Partnerships for Affordable Healthcare Access and Longevity" project with IPE Global, focusing on urban health.

She has authored over 28 peer-reviewed publications and has received research grants and awards from institutions such as the Science and Engineering Research Board of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the British Society for Population Studies, and the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.

Her work has been presented at major international platforms, including the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, the World Social Science Forum, the International Population Conference, the International Conference on Urban Health, and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Her research interests include aging, migration, and urban health. Outside of her professional life, she enjoys painting, dancing, and cooking, and treasures spending time with her family and young daughter.