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Dr. Greg Glass joins the Department

Dr. Greg Glass has joined the Geography Department in a joint position with the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI), as a full Professor. Dr. Glass joins us form Johns Hopkins University. His research addresses the maintenance and transmision dynamics of infectious agents, especially zoonotic agents. His work includes both laboratory and field research of animal reservoir and arthropod vector populations, as well as epidemiologic studies of affected human populations. The goal is to better understand the reasons for the emergence and persistence of infectious diseases. From a practical perspective, infectious diseases even globally important ones such as malaria, are limited in time and space. Understanding the environmental drivers of the spatio-temporal patterns and being able to identify them is critical to implementing control strategies. The world and the human population is too large to simply randomly apply intervention strategies. To do so invites the evolution of resistance in vectors and pathogens as well as wasting limited resources. Recent research has focused on rodent-borne viruses (Hantavirus, Coronavirus Dengue virus), bacteria (Leptospira, Borrelia), rickettsiae (Ehrlichia) and malaria. In addition to traditional field and laboratory studies he develops integrated statistical spatial models for disease risk assement in a spatially explicit format using geographic information systems (GIS).