Marilyn O. Ruiz
Clinical Assistant Professor, Pathobiology
Professional Interests: My primary
research interest is in the spatial aspects of diseases and the environment.
I use geographic information systems (GIS), digital cartography and statistical
methods to better measure where and when an event occurred in order to
better understand why. This understanding leads to spatially-enabled
models of potential outcomes given specified conditions at different
places. We can learn, for example, what characterizes the soils, vegetation,
and land use associated with disease vectors or with changes in amphibian
or other animal populations. In addition, considering the spatial context
for a disease outbreak can reveal what water sources are nearby, the
direction of prevailing winds, and relative locations of the cases. I
am also involved with development of visualization techniques to understand
the spatial and temporal relationships found in ecological studies. An
additional interest is in issues of enterprise-wide GIS implementation,
especially in a public health context, and the development of decision
support tools that help link science to informed public policy. This
includes work on the organizational aspects of technology adoption, improving
user interfaces for spatial data access, and data visualization methods.
Selected Publications:
Ruiz MO. 2005. Geocoded Photography. Geospatial Solutions 15 (5): 37-40.
*Reeder AL, MO Ruiz, A Pessier, LE Brown, JM Levengood, CA Phillips, MB Wheeler, RE Warner and VR Beasley. 2005. Intersexuality and the Cricket Frog Decline: Historic and Geographic Trends. Environ Health Perspect , 113(3): 261-65.
Reeder AL, MO Ruiz, A Pessier, LE Brown, JM Levengood, CA Phillips, MB Wheeler, RE Warner and VR Beasley. 2004. Intersexuality and the Cricket Frog Decline: Historic and Geographic Trends. Environ Health Perspect: doi:10.1289/ehp.7276. [Online 7 December 2004]
Ruiz MO, C Tedesco, T McTighe and U
Kitron. 2004. Environmental and Social Determinants of Human Risk for
West Nile Virus in the Chicago Region, 2002. 3:8 (April 20, 2004) International
Journal of Health Geographics. 2004.
On-line at http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/3/1/8
Ruiz MO and D Remmert. 2004. A Local Department of Public Health and the Geospatial Data Infrastructure. Journal of Medical Systems.28 (4): 385-395.
Ruiz MO Spatial Surveillance of
and Response to Biological Threats. Ch 6.3 in The Geographical
Dimensions of Terrorism (Cutter S L, DB Richardson and TJ Wilbanks, eds):
199-203. Routledge: New York and London, 2003.
