Deborah Thomas

Professor and Chair
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

I specialize in hazards and health geography and have more than twenty years of experience in the application of geographic information science & technology in a variety of social science application areas, including health and disaster management. My teaching and research interests focus on issues of vulnerability/resilience as they relate to both natural and human-induced hazards and health outcomes, commonly emphasizing the role of technology, particularly GIS, in assessing and evaluating the intersection of human-physical systems and the built environment. Around these themes, I have published in numerous journals and is co-editor a book entitled Social Vulnerability. In 2005, I was a Fulbright Scholar to Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. I have worked for the last 10 years in Tanzania as part of a partnership with the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences in Mwanza, Tanzania.