Dr. Thomas Kistemann, Deputy Director and Senior Physician, Hygiene and Public Health Institute, Bonn University, Germany. Thomas’ research interests include environmental health, infectious disease epidemiology, health landscapes, and public health applications of GIS. He has been Chair of the Working Group on Medical Geography within the German Association of Geography since 1995.
Thomas Kistemann grew up in Aachen, Germany. He holds an MD degree from Gottingen University, a Masters in geography and a PhD (hygiene medical geography) from the University of Bonn. He is a medical specialist for hygiene environmental medicine. Thomas interest in medical and health geography was stimulated by field experiences as young research assistant in the Bolivian Andes, together with his impression that German medical geography had traditionally been dominated by medicine and lacked adequate perceptions of modern geography. After some years of clinical work experience, Thomas returned to academia and has held various posts in the Hygiene Public Health Institute at Bonn University. He leads the department of Medical Geography Public health and heads the institute s WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promoting Water Management Risk Communication. Additionally, he is professor at the University s Department of Geography and senior fellow at the Department of Political Cultural Change of the University s Centre for Development Research. His research is funded by the German Federal Ministries of Health, Environment and Research, as well as by the European Union. Thomas has taught medical geography, hygiene and preventive medicine since 1993. He has co-published a German textbook on GIS applications in the health system (Wichmann, 2004), a monograph on synergies of nature and health protection (BfN, 2005), and made contributions to books including Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Springer, 2003), GIS in Public Health Practice (CRC Press, 2004), and Water as a Human Right (2007). Thomas organized the Twelfth International Medical Geography Symposium that convened at Bonn University in July, 2007.
Thomas may be contacted at thomas.kistemann@ukb.uni-bonn.de. See also http://www.ihph.de
Updated: February 2009
Health and Medical Geography 