Grant Category:	Fulbright-Nehru Senior Researcher
Field of Specialization:	Public Health
Name:	Dr. Marilyn O' Hara Ruiz
Official Address:	Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
Indian Host Institution:	University College of Medical Sciences Delhi
Duration of Grant & Start Date :	Duration: 5 months December 2011

Brief Bio:

Dr. Marilyn Ruiz, is a Clinical Associate Professor, in the division of epidemiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana. Dr. Ruiz' research interests lies in the synthesis of factors related to disease transmission in particular places and times, including conditions and characteristics of places that are associated with illness. Her work on spatial risk models of West Nile virus (WNV) in people, birds and mosquitoes and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in white-tail deer in Illinois is projects that exemplify this focus. Dr. Ruiz teaches courses on Spatial Epidemiology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Health Applications, and presents workshops on GIS to public health personnel. Her goal is to make significant contributions to improving public health through better understanding of disease ecology and the effective use of spatial data and tools as applied to health. She has published widely in such outlets as "Journal of Medical Systems", "International Journal of Health Geographics", "Environmental Health Perspectives, and the Journal of Medical Entomology". Dr. Mrylin Ruiz's Fulbright-Nehru research is titled as 'Spatial Epidemiology for Public Health Challenges in India'. For her research Dr. Ruiz will use spatial epidemiology techniques to help address India's public health challenges. Spatial epidemiology concepts and techniques will be used to identify hotspots, create maps to explain and analyze spatial patterns, and integrate data about maternal and child health with local socio-economic and environmental characteristics. Household-level health survey data collected by the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India, will be combined with other data on population and urban characteristics in identified slum areas of Delhi to generate local level morbidity and mortality indicators among women and children.