Professor, Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA. Ben’s major research interests are in geographic information science and its applications, focusing on spatial analysis and modeling; health and the environment; transportation and network science; and, emergency planning and crisis management.
Benjamin Zhan was raised in Hunan, China. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree from Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (now part of Wuhan University), his Master of Science degree in Geo-Information Sciences from the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in the Netherlands, and his Ph.D. from the Department of Geography at SUNY-Buffalo.
Ben seeks to develop new analytical, modeling, and computational methods for analyzing, exploring, and visualizing geospatial data and information. In addition, Ben applies these methods to achieve a better understanding of the relations between human health and the environment (broadly defined), to discover new knowledge about transportation and network systems in geographic space, and to widen the understanding of disasters and hence improve decision-making related to emergency planning and crisis management. Ben has written or co-authored more than 95 scientific and professional publications. Ben’s top five most referenced articles have been cited by researchers in 32 countries.
In the field of Health Geography, Ben has published or has articles accepted for publication in such journals as Texas Medicine, Annals of Epidemiology, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Social Science Medicine, Journal of Medical Systems, and International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. Ben served on review panels for the U. S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Transport Geography, Environmental Health Insights, and URISA Journal.
Ben may be contacted at zhan@txstate.edu. More information about Ben s professional qualifications can be found at his web page: http://uweb.txstate.edu/~fz01/.
Updated: January 2009
Health and Medical Geography 