Sadie Ryan, Ph.D.

Professor of Medical Geography

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

2024 Awardee

Sadie Ryan joined the Department of Geography a decade ago and quickly established herself as a leader in medical geography. She earned tenure and was promoted to professor in 2024, demonstrating her excellence in the classroom and laboratory. Ryan’s work is multifaceted but revolves around disease. As an expert on disease risk, she makes extensive use of modeling to analyze vector-borne and other climate-sensitive diseases in an ever-changing world.

“The need for spatial understanding in disease ecology and the burgeoning global climate-health crisis makes my work urgent and timely,” Ryan says. “It highlights the need for spatiotemporal modeling and informatics tools in climate-health settings.”

Ryan splits her time between the Department of Geography and the Emerging Pathogens Institute while also serving as co-director of the Florida Climate Institute. She has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles on geography, entomology, ecology and public health. Her groundbreaking work has received more than 12,000 citations, with 8,769 of those in the last five years.

Ryan is also a frequent guest speaker and collaborator for other organizations. She has lent her expertise on disease emergence and climate dynamics to some of the world’s largest health groups including the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.

“All these roles aren’t merely titles,” says Department of Geography Chair Jane Southworth. “They demand significant time and dedication, and her undertaking them accentuates the trust and respect she garners from her peers in the field.”