A Study of the Impact of Environmental Chemicals and Micronutrients on Pubertal Development in A Mexican Population by Yun Liu A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Nutritional Sciences) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Karen E. Peterson, Chair Assistant Professor Andrew Jones Professor Angeles E. Martínez-Mier, Indiana University Associate Professor Brisa N. Sánchez Yun Liu
[email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2979-9552 Copyright © Yun Liu 2017 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Hui Li and Xiumin Liu, for all of their love and support ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my adviser and committee chair, Dr. Karen Peterson, for her mentorship in both academia and life and for all the opportunities that she has provided over the course of my doctoral training. I am very grateful for all the support that she has given me to pursue all my “crazy” but “creative” research ideas and projects, even when these ideas took longer than expected to implement. I am also very thankful that I have been able to shadow her at grant planning meetings and research meetings, participate in her teaching, and work on invited research articles and book chapters with her. After five years working with her, I have grown professionally and I have become more confident to pursue a career in academia. I would also like to thank all my committee members. Dr. Angeles Martínez-Mier offered me the training in fluoride measurement and analysis in her lab.