Professor Michael Wimberly

Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability. Head of the Ecological and Geospatial Research and Applications in Planetary Health University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Mike Wimberly is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and the head of the Ecological and Geospatial Research and Applications in Planetary Health (EcoGRAPH) research group (http://ecograph.net/). Dr. Wimberly holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from Oregon State University. Before moving to OU, he held faculty positions at South Dakota State University and the University of Georgia.

Dr. Wimberly’s research explores scientific questions about the effects of environmental change on human and ecosystem health. The results are applied to develop spatial decision-support tools for public health and natural resource management. These topics are addressed through landscape, regional, and global analyses using satellite remote sensing and other sources of environmental and epidemiological data. Specific research areas include the effects of climate variation on vector-borne disease transmission, the influences of urban landscapes on vector habitats and disease transmission risk, and the development of computer software for forecasting disease outbreaks and projecting the future effects of climate and land use change on disease transmission cycles. Dr. Wimberly works with collaborators from around the world to carry out this research at multiple locations in North America, West Africa, and Ethiopia.