In 2020 I joined KAUST as an Assistant Professor of Statistics, and as the Principal Investigator of the Geospatial Statistics and Health Surveillance (GeoHealth) research group. In the GeoHealth group, we develop frontier geospatial methods and computational tools for geospatial data analysis and health surveillance, and contribute to a wide range of collaborative projects to solve challenging problems in public health and make a positive impact on the world. Current methodological projects include the development of innovative spatio-temporal models for infectious diseases, and the development of approaches for the analysis of spatially misaligned data. Current applied projects include the assessment of short-term effects of temperature and air pollution on mortality, and surveillance methods for the early detection of disease outbreaks to inform the development of policies for prevention and control.
I have published extensively in leading journals in statistical methodology, software, and health and environmental applications.
I serve as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, and the rOpenSci's project for developing a peer review system for statistical software.
I have taught statistics and spatial epidemiology courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels at universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ethiopia, Spain, and Saudi Arabia, and I have been invited to deliver training courses on geospatial modeling, disease mapping, and the development of interactive visualization applications at international conferences and capacity building programs.
I have created educational materials that impact learning on a large scale, including my books
Geospatial Health Data: Modeling and Visualization with R-INLA and Shiny (2019, Chapman & Hall/CRC) and
Spatial Statistics for Data Science: Theory and Practice with R (2023, Chapman & Hall/CRC).
The books describe spatial and spatio-temporal methods and visualization techniques to analyze georeferenced data in R. Specifically, the books show how to apply cutting-edge statistical techniques to quantify disease burden, understand geographic and temporal patterns, identify risk factors, and measure inequalities in different fields. They also provide the necessary tools to design and develop web-based digital applications such as disease atlases that incorporate interactive visualizations to make disease risk estimates available to a wide audience.
I am a member of the R Epidemics Consortium (RECON), a group of international experts to create the next generation of analysis tools for disease outbreak response, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Datanauts, an international community of people interested in learning how to develop data science skills through access to and use of NASA's open data, and R-Ladies Global, a worldwide organization to promote gender diversity in the R community. I am also part of Homeward Bound, a leadership initiative for women with a background in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine).
I am the 2023 winner of the prestigious Letten Prize. Awarded by the Letten Foundation and the Young Academy of Norway, the prize recognizes young researchers’ contributions to health, development, environment, and equality across all aspects of human life. I received the Letten Prize for my pioneering research in disease surveillance, and my significant contributions to the development of sustainable solutions for health and the environment globally.