Jon Zelner, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the department of Epidemiology in the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Zelner holds a second appointment in the Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health.
Dr. Zelner’s research is focused on using spatial analysis, social network analyisis and dynamic modeling to prevent infectious diseases, with a focus on tuberculosis and diarrheal disease. Jon is also interested in understanding how the social and biological causes of illness interact to generate observable patterns of disease in space and in social networks, across outcomes ranging from infection to mental illness.
A large spatial cluster of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases in Lima, Peru is highlighted in red. A key challenge in my work is understanding why these cases cluster in space: can social, spatial, and genetic data tell us where transmission is occurring and how to interrupt it?
