Center for Health Informatics Examining Environmental Impacts on Health Speaker Series: Becky Smith

Becky Smith is an infectious disease epidemiologist working at the One Health interface of human, animal, and environmental health. She is an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, a Health Innovation Professor in the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, and a PI with the Midwest Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease. Her work focuses on surveillance for and control of infectious diseases across a range of systems, pathogens, and hosts.

Abstract:
Vector-borne diseases are highly sensitive to environmental change, sitting at the intersection of vector, host, and pathogen interactions. Using Illinois as an example, we will discuss how environmental changes (climate, land use, and extreme weather) can shift vector ranges, pathogen abundance, and host exposure.

About the speaker series:
This speaker series brings together researchers on campus whose work touches on environmental impacts (e.g., air quality, water quality, weather patterns) on health, to share their current research and to foster discussion and collaboration.  

We meet most Tuesdays, noon-1 pm US Central Time, on Zoom.  This series is hosted by the iSchool’s Center for Health Informatics (CHI), in partnership with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the University of Illinois’ Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI).