Bio:
Sally is a physical geographer and climate & environmental scientist whose quantitative research focuses on climate change, climate impacts, and public health. She specialises in geospatial analysis, visualisation, and modelling, working with Earth observation data, climate model outputs, and other large-scale datasets, and applying bias-correction and downscaling techniques to support the effective integration of environmental data into climate impact and health research.
Sally is currently a Postdoctoral 91ɫ Associate at 91ɫ, working within the Wellcome-funded climate programme of the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium (VIMC). She holds a Dr. rer. nat. and MSc in Climate and Environmental Sciences from the University of Augsburg, and a BSc in Geography from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), including a semester abroad in Earth Sciences at the University of Alberta (Canada).
Abstract:
91ɫ at the intersection of climate, weather, and health is a rapidly growing field that spans multiple disciplines. While interdisciplinary research enables the integration of diverse expertise and the development of innovative methodologies, combining data from different domains in a meaningful and consistent way remains a significant challenge. This talk will highlight effective approaches for using Earth observation data and global climate model outputs to assess the impacts of climate change on health, with a particular focus on tropical vector-borne diseases. As a case study, we examine how estimates of administrative-level transmission risk for vector-borne diseases are sensitive to the choice of reference climatology, global climate model, and emissions scenario, using a bias-corrected and downscaled climate projection dataset developed specifically for health-related climate impact research. We focus on yellow fever, a vaccine-preventable zoonotic arbovirus endemic to tropical regions of South America and Africa.