Dr. Michael C. Wimberly, Associate Professor, GISc Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University. Research interests include the ecology of infectious diseases, human-environment interactions, and spatial statistics.
Michael Wimberly s educational background is in ecology and natural resource management. He received a Bachelor s degree in environmental science from the University of Virginia, a Master s degree in quantitative resource management from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Oregon State University.
Mike conducts research in the areas of landscape ecology and spatial epidemiology. His current work focuses on integrating ecological concepts with the application of satellite imagery, GIS datasets, and spatial statistics to assess environmental and health hazards at broad spatial scales. A recently completed project examined the environmental factors controlling the geographic distributions of the tick-borne pathogens Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in the southeastern United States. Spatial statistical models were developed to create predictive maps that can be used in assessments of tick-borne disease risk. Current projects include examining the influences of physical and social environments on geographic patterns of obesity across the United States, and using satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems, and spatial statistics to make ecological forecasts of West Nile virus and malaria outbreaks. Mike s health geography research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the USDA National Research Initiative. In addition to his research activities, Mike teaches a graduate-level course in geospatial analysis that focuses on the application of spatial statistics in ecological and epidemiological research.
Mike can be contacted at michael.wimberly@sdstate.edu. More information on the GISc Center of Excellence can be found at http://globalmonitoring.sdstate.edu.
Updated: February 2009
Health and Medical Geography 