Anni Yang, PhD.
Education/Experience
BS. in Surveying and Mapping, Hohai Univeristy (2014)
MS. in Geography, Michigan State University (2016)
PhD in Geography (Minor in Numerical Epidemiology), University of Florida (2019)
Post-Doc at Colorado State University and USDA-APHIS
Research Interests: Medical and Health Geography, Spatial disease ecology, Infectious diseases, Environmental health, Wildlife-livestock-human interface, Dynamic spatial simulation models, Network models, Host movement.
I’m a medical/health geographer and a spatial disease ecologist. My research intersects in geography, disease ecology, and one health. I employ GIS, geospatial literacy and modeling, machine learning algorithms, and dynamic simulation modeling to understand the disease transmission dynamics and environmental impacts on human and ecosystem health.
Current members
Himel Talukder
PhD student at OU DGES
Research interest: ecology and epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases
He holds an MS in epidemiology and public health and has experience with disease surveillance and epidemiological model of infectious diseases. His current research aims to distinguish ecological and environmental drivers that contribute to animal movement and contact risk of zoonotic spillover from wildlife-livestock-human interface.
Jim Anderson
PhD student at OU DGES
Research Interest: Space-Time Model, Geostatistics
He holds an MA in Geography at University of South Florida. His current research focuses on developing space-time model to capture hotspot dynamics of health outcomes.
Siyu Liu
PhD Student at OU DGES
Research interests: Health Geography, Environmental Health, Built Environment, Climate Change, Urban Geography
She earned a Master of Commerce specializing in Business Analytics from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor’s degree in Geographic Information Science from Southwest Jiaotong University. I am currently focusing on One Health, integrating economics, policy, and GIS to address complex health challenges by analyzing the interconnectedness of human and environmental health.
Lab Alumni
Melissa R. Marquez
MS graduated in 2024 (She is a PhD student at PennState)
Reseach Interest: disease ecology, urban ecology, tick-borne diseases, applied ecology, conservation, spatial patterns
She received her BS in Biology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her MS research will focus on Oklahoma City’s urban landscape impact on tick species diversity.
Spatial Disease Ecology and Health Lab 