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Sadie J. Ryan, PhD
Associate Professor, Medical Geography


​Department of Geography, University of Florida
Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florid
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Co-Director, Florida Climate Institute

​CV - ​Google Scholar
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Graduate Faculty in:
  • Geography
  • Society, Natural Resources and Environment Program (SNRE) 
  • ​Latin American Studies (LATAM)
  • ​Environmental and Global Health (EGH)
Honorary Research Fellow, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Current QDEC Lab Group Members
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Catherine (Cat) Lippi, MFAS,
PhD candidate, Medical Geography, UF
​

Research Interests: ecological and anthropogenic factors affecting transmission of vector-borne diseases. By combining geographical, ecological, and epidemiological methodologies, I explore pathogen-vector-host interactions for mosquito-borne diseases including dengue and Zika virus. 
This is a necessary step in developing effective public health recommendations for disease control.  
​

Funding: NSF EEID, NIH EEID
Personal Website       ​Google Scholar

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Stephanie Mundis, MSc Biol, MSc Geog
PhD candidate, Medical Geography, UF


​Research Interests: Vectorborne diseases, insecticide resistance, particularly for Aedes-transmitted arboviral threats in the New World

​Funding: UF Graduate School Fellowship

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Shreejana (Shree) Bhattarai, MSc Geog
PhD track, Medical Geography, UF

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Research Interests: landscape epidemiology and spatial analysis of infectious diseases, especially vector borne diseases like malaria and control interventions for successfully eliminating those diseases.
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​Funding: UF Graduate School Fellowship

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Tyler G. James, Affiliated Researcher

​Research Interests: Health disparities among people with disabilities; infectious disease prevention; application of spatial analyses to health education program development. 

​Personal Website

Alumni
Postdoctoral Researchers
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Alexis (Lexi) White, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate, Medical Geography, UF (2019-2020)

Research Interests:
ticks, tick borne diseases, tick management, mathematical modeling of vector borne diseases, spatial ecology of vector borne disease systems
​

​Funding: CDC Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases
Twitter: @lexiwhite27       Google Scholar

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Gabriela Hamerlinck, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate, Geography, UF (2018-2019)

Research interests: I am a quantitative ecologist broadly interested in ecological modeling of host-parasite interactions. I have additional research interests and postdoc experience in quantitative biology education.
​ ​Funding: CDC Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases​
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Current: Lecturer, Medical Geography, UF

Luis E. Escobar, DVM, PhD. 
Postdoctoral Scholar, SUNY Upstate Medical University 
(2014) 

Luis worked on an 8 month postdoc with the cholera project in Ecuador, primarily on ecological niche modeling (ENM) of water borne pathogens and harmful algal blooms (HABs).

​Current: Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech University
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Philipp Boersch-Supan, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate, Geography, UF (2016-2018)

​Research Interests: I am a marine ecologist studying life in the open ocean - the pelagic realm.I worked on the bioenergetics and foraging ecology of albatrosses. I use Bayesian and frequentist inference approaches for static and dynamic models of biological systems. 
Funding: NSF POLAR
​Personal Website  Google Scholar
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​Current: Ecological Statistician, British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)

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Rachel Sippy, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate (2018-2020)
​Medical Geography, UF
SUNY Upstate Medical University


​Research Interests: epidemiology, disease ecology, seasonality, vectorborne illness, spatial analyses, machine learning, compartmental models, causality
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Personal website  Google Scholar

Current: Research Associate, Cambrige, UK

Graduate Students
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​James Martin
MSc, 2019, Medical Geography, UF

Research Interests: Vector borne disease; Social-ecological mosquito risks in urban Ecuador

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Tess Youker-Smith, MSc, 2016
SUNY ESF

​Research: Ranavirus outbreaks in vernal pool restoration                              
Funding: #SciFund, WNY Herpetological Society, Alexander Wetland Graduate Award
Amphibian Ranavirus Project

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Andrea Thomen, MSc, 2014
​SUNY ESF
​
I use bird communities as bio-indicators for habitat quality, through the study of neotropical migrant birds in N. America and the Caribbean. For my MSc, I studied bird communities in organic cacao farms in the Dominican Republic and evaluate cacao potential as wildlife corridors.
Personal Website

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Emily (Gavard) Almeroth, MPS, 2017
SUNY ESF, co-advised with Dr. C. Whipps


​Research:
Parasitology and nutrition in New England Cottontail rabbits in NY

​Funding: New York Dept of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC)

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Rebecca Fuda, MSc, 2015
​SUNY ESF

My research interests lie at the human-wildlife interface in African landscapes. In particular, I am interested in investigating the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on wildlife populations as well as factors contributing to human-wildlife conflict and potential strategies for mitigation. 
Personal Website

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​​Lindsey Scales, MPS, 2014
​SUNY ESF

My interests include animal behavior and species preservation, with a primary focus on the conservation of African hoof stock. My goal is to utilize research on both captive and wild populations, along with breeding programs and public education, to preserve in situ populations as well develop captive management protocols.

Undergraduate Researchers
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Emily Stone, UF '23
Molecular and Cellular Biology


Research interests: emerging pathogens including prion diseases; morphometric analyses of Aedes mosquitoes; and modeling disease effects. 

​Funding: UF Emerging Scholar, 2019

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Taylor Rouviere, UF '18
Biology & Psychology (majors), 
Geography & Disabilities in Society (minors) 

​​Research Interests:
  disease modeling, statistical analyses in R,  data visualization.  
​
Funding: UF University Scholars 2017

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Lauren N. Fregosi, BS, 2017 
Biotech BS, Syracuse University, '17
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Research Interests:
Spatial modeling of vector-borne diseases
Funding: NSF EEID REU 2016

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Katie Walker, UF '18
Geography 

​
​Research Interests: GIS data exploration as part of research projects for vectorborne disease research in southern Ecuador

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Kimberlie Vera UF '19
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation (WEC)

Research Interests: Distributions of African wildlife in the savanna; conservation of African wildlife and the implications of reserve design.

Current: PhD student, UWisc Wildlife


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Stephen Mackay, UF '19
Geography (Medical Geography)

Research Interests: spatial analyses of social-ecological systems approaches to vectorborne disease work in southern Ecuador

Funding: NSF REU, UF University Scholar 2018

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Tyler G. James, BS, 2016
Psychology, Geography minor, UF '16 
Research interests:  I am interested in both provider-based and patient-perceived HIV-related stigma as a barrier to health service utilization.
Funding: UF University Scholars 2015
Personal Website

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Rachel Brubaker, BS, SUNY-ESF '15
PROJECT: 
Research assistant for the Cacao Project
As a conservation biology student my academic interests include wildlife reserve management, habitat restoration, and behavioral ecology. POSTER, Spring 2014

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​Logan Osterhoudt, BS, SUNY-ESF '14
PROJECT:  Research assistant for the Amphibian Ranavirus Project
Conducting lab procedures preparing samples for genetic analyses; conducting fieldwork on vernal pool monitoring

Katie Luukkonen, SUNY-ESF '13
PROJECT: Synthesizing published studies of parasites of cottontail rabbits in the continental US, to establish lab ID protocols, optimal fecal sample preparation and parasite recovery (2013)

Heather Holmes, SUNY-ESF '13
PROJECTS:  Phlebotomy based research in conjunction with Dengue vaccine trials at Upstate Medical University (2013); Investigating the potential for horticultural therapy in Syracuse - community gardens, urban food growing, access and obstacles in Syracuse, NY (2012).

​Dennis Chan, SUNY-ESF Honors Program, '12
PROJECT: Investigating ecological correlates in colobine monkey evolution (2012)

Tom Ryan, SUNY-ESF '15

PROJECT: Collecting and collating data for phylogenetic construction; learning phylogenetic programming methods (2012)
OTHERS
Mike Jones, SUNY-ESF 2013-2015
​
Mike worked with the Ryan Lab on a McIntire-Stennis funded project to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of an emerging invasion of Emerald Ash Borer in NY. He continues work in the Fierke Lab at SUNY ESF in a PhD project investigating multiple invasive insects. 
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Justin McMullen, SUNY-ESF '13, 
Research Aide, PECAR Project, 2012-2013

Silvia Saldivar, SUNY-ESF MS, '14
Research Aide, PECAR Project, 2012-2013

Peter Mumford, Cornell University '12, Volunteer, 2012​
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