Climate extremes and health; remote sensing for data development; land use change; spatial statistics
I joined the MPC in 2018 as a research scientist working with Dr. Kathryn Grace on a variety of population-environment projects focused in rural Mali. With a background in statistics and a Ph.D. in water resources (civil engineering), my expertise in environmental data analysis provides an unprecedented perspective when considering the effect of climate extremes on health outcomes. My current research interests include: (i) developing innovative methods for quantifying the effect of climate extremes on maternal and child health, (ii) providing guidance to properly merge climate and population data, (iii) assessing subsistance farming sustainability in rural Mali, and (iv) analyzing the effects of environment on circular migration in rural Mali. I love building what are known as "stochastic weather generators" to simulate conditional weather series (exhibiting prescribed trends or characteristics) for use in agricultural decision support, land use change analysis, and population-environment research.