People


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

Melissa R. Marquez

Master student at OU DGES

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. 

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.