Professor, Medical Geography
UF Research Foundation Professor
UF Foundation Preeminence Professor
Department of Geography
Emerging Pathogens Institute
Co-Director, Florida Climate Institute
University of Florida
Graduate Faculty in:
Undergraduate Researcher
My research interests focus on using geospatial analysis to investigate and visualize public health issues. I am current conducting a visual scoping review of entomological and dengue surveillance data across South India to evaluate capacity for novel vector interventions.
Support: GeoGator Summer Research Program, 2025
Continuing research AY 25-26.
UF PhD Graduate, VetMed '24
Conducted doctoral work (UF PhD, VetMed, '24) detecting salivary antigens for Aedes spp mosquitoes in serological samples. Continued interests in geospatial and spatiotemporal methods for exploring vectorborne diseases. Worked on various QDEC projects funded by NSF VectorByte and Florida Climate Institute.
Postdoctoral Associate, Stanford
My current focus is on climatic drivers of vector behavior (i.e. phenology) and how phenology can influence pathogen persistence and human disease risk. As a Verena Fellow-in-Residence with Sadie, we explored multiscale drivers of reported tick-borne viruses. We will continue to explore tick-borne disease risk (i.e. sick ticks).
Verena Fellow-In-Residence, '23-24. Funding: NSF BII: Verena
Lecturer, University of Lancaster, UK
My work combines field data, lab experiments, and mathematical modeling to answer questions about how environmental factors (especially temperature and climate change) impact infectious diseases. I draw on perspectives from disease ecology, thermal biology, and trait-based ecology.
Assistant Professor, Population Health Sciences, Epidemiology, UW Madison
Infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses, are fascinating to me. Driven by the forces of environmental and climatic changes, zoonoses thrive. I pursue these research questions with a One Health focus, integrating techniques and methods across multiple scientific disciplines.
Ecological Statistician, British Trust for Ornithology, UK
Currently: Ecological Statistician, British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Cambridge, UK. Postdoctoral Associate, 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.
Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech University
Currently: Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech University. 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).
Associate Professor of Instruction, Medical Geography, UF
Currently: Associate Professor of Instruction, Medical Geography, UF. Postdoctoral Associate, 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 Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases.
Biological Scientist, APHIS-USDA
Currently: Biological Scientist, APHIS-USDA, Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH). Postdoctoral Associate (2021-2024).
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 tick and mosquito-borne diseases.
Funding: NSF VectorByte Project.
Research Fellow, Cambridge, UK
Currently: Research Fellow, Cambridge, UK. Postdoctoral Associate (2018-2020), UF & SUNY Upstate Medical University.
Research Interests: epidemiology, disease ecology, seasonality, vectorborne illness, spatial analyses, machine learning, compartmental models, causality.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, URI
Currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, URI. Postdoctoral Associate, UF (2019-2021).
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.
SUNY ESF, 2017, co-advised with Dr. C. Whipps.
Research: Parasitology and nutrition in New England Cottontail rabbits in NY.
Funding: New York Dept of Environmental Conservation.
MSc Medical Geography, UF 2025
Next: PhD, Public Health, U Wisconsin. Medical Geography, UF, 2025.
Research Interests: Using geospatial and statistical analysis to study the relationship between vector-borne disease ecology (Aedes-borne) and climate change.
Funding: NSF BII: Verena.
PhD Medical Geography, UF 2023
Research Interests: landscape epidemiology and spatial analysis of infectious diseases, especially vector borne diseases like malaria and control interventions for successfully eliminating those diseases.
Funding: UF Graduate School Fellowship.
SUNY ESF, 2015.
My research interests lie at the human-wildlife interface in African landscapes. My MSc investigated the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on wildlife populations as well as factors contributing to human-wildlife conflict.
PhD Medical Geography, UF 2021
Currently: Biological Scientist, APHIS-USDA, Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH). Medical Geography, UF, PhD 2021.
Research Interests: ecological and anthropogenic factors affecting transmission of vector-borne diseases.
Funding: NSF EEID, NIH EEID.
Currently: Research Scientist II, LPRC. Medical Geography, UF, 2019.
Research Interests: Vector borne disease; Social-ecological mosquito risks in urban Ecuador.
Currently: GIS specialist, Texas Department of Health. Medical Geography, UF, 2021.
Research Interests: Vectorborne diseases, insecticide resistance, particularly for Aedes-transmitted arboviral threats in the New World.
Funding: UF Graduate School Fellowship.
SUNY ESF, 2014.
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.
SUNY ESF, 2014.
I use bird communities as bio-indicators for habitat quality, particularly neotropical migrant birds in N. America and the Caribbean. For my MSc, I studied bird communities in organic cacao farms in the Dominican Republic to evaluate cacao potential as wildlife corridors.
SUNY ESF, 2016.
Research: Ranavirus outbreaks in vernal pool restoration.
Funding: #SciFund, WNY Herpetological Society, Alexander Wetland Graduate Award.
Undergraduate Researcher, UF Statistics '26.
Research Interests: spatial modeling of diseases, geospatial data analysis, health policy, disease prevention. In QDEC, I mapped potential hotspots for dengue in the United States, based on temperature-dependent transmission for Aedes aegypti and Ae albopictus.
Support: GeoGator Summer Research Program, 2024; Continuing research in AY 24-25.
SUNY-ESF '15. Research assistant for the Cacao Project.
As a conservation biology student my academic interests include wildlife reserve management, habitat restoration, and behavioral ecology.
SUNY-ESF Honors Program, '12.
Project: Investigating ecological correlates in colobine monkey evolution (2012).
Biotech BS, Syracuse University, '17.
Research Interests: Spatial modeling of vector-borne diseases.
Funding: NSF EEID REU 2016.
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).
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.
Undergraduate Researcher
I have a wide variety of research interests, from conservation to medical entomology and public health. However, all of my work revolves around the application of GIS and remote sensing to investigate a problem and look for potential solutions. At QDEC, I am working to build a fine-scale model to identify thermal niches in urban areas in which vector mosquitoes could proliferate. Previous projects include working with NASA to highlight urban heat islands, and working with the Florida Museum of Natural History to map the habitats of the imperiled Loammi Skipper butterfly.
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.
Undergraduate Researcher, UF. Public Health '25. Minors: Medical Geography/Statistics. MPH program starting AY 24-25.
Research Interests: Utilizing GIS and statistical software to analyze factors that impact the spatial distribution of vector borne diseases. In QDEC, I am working on mapping out the impact of temperature changes on dengue transmission.
Support: GeoGator Summer Research Program, 2024.
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).
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.
SUNY-ESF '13. Research Aide, PECAR Project, 2012-2013.
Cornell University '12. Volunteer, 2012.
SUNY-ESF '14. Research assistant for the Amphibian Ranavirus Project.
Conducting lab procedures preparing samples for genetic analyses; conducting fieldwork on vernal pool monitoring.
Undergraduate Researcher, '25. Public Health major, UF.
Research Interests: In QDEC, I am mapping the intersection of temperature suitability for transmission of EEEV, and horse farms in Florida, to explore where that risk is concentrated currently and may change in the future.
Support: Summer GeoGator program 2023.
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.
SUNY-ESF '15.
Project: Collecting and collating data for phylogenetic construction; learning phylogenetic programming methods (2012).
SUNY-ESF MS, '14. Research Aide, PECAR Project, 2012-2013.
Undergraduate Researcher, Honors Thesis 2026
Medical Geography and Public Health, UF '26
My research interests involve using geospatial techniques to further analyze and map public health concerns. In QDEC, I mapped temperature suitability for dengue virus transmission in order to explore which regions in Florida are facing additional risk in our changing climate.
Support: GeoGator Summer Research Program, 2024
Continuing research AY 24-25, AY 25-26.
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.
NSF funded MSc student, UGA Geography
Currently: NSF funded MSc in UGA Geography. Undergraduate Researcher, '24.
Research Interests: I am interested in evaluating climate conditions in relation to human health and society. In QDEC, I will be developing the climate extreme index for different regions within the Alabama Black Belt.
PhD student, UWisc Wildlife
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.
UF '18. Geography.
Research Interests: GIS data exploration as part of research projects for vectorborne disease research in southern Ecuador.
Research Technician, 2022
Research interests: Effects of global change on vector-borne and zoonotic disease transmission; application of ecological modeling and bioinformatics to disease ecology and conservation biology.
Funding: NIH R01 EEID Ticks and Rickettsial Pathogens.
Research Assistant (OPS), 2023-2024.
In the QDEC lab, I am working on data documentation and preparation for models of tick seasonality and environmental interactions. Generally, I am interested in the factors driving savanna ecosystem structure and function, and ecosystem processes in wetlands, streams, and forests. My experience and proficiency revolves around field data collection techniques, laboratory and data organization, and research group productivity and dynamics.
Funding: UF BI SEED.
Environmental and Global Health Graduate Lab Rotation, 2022. Environmental/Occupational Health.
Research interests: climate change, environmental infectious disease, vector borne disease. I am interested in exploring the relationship between climate change and health specifically as it relates to vector-borne disease and other environmental infectious agents using environmental epidemiology and GIS techniques.
High School Researcher, now at University of Pennsylvania
High School Experience. Class of 2025. Currently: University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Applied Maths.
Exploring R code packages and Google Earth Engine, to run a climate-driven time-series model for dengue.
High School Researcher, now at Stanford University
High School Experience. HS FL homeschooling, '23. Currently: Stanford University '27.
Exploring creation and coding for mapping vector borne diseases under climate change.
