Cyrus Sinai

I am a PhD student in the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). I am very interested in using geographic information systems (GIS) and other epidemiological methods to improve infectious disease surveillance in the most remote, resource-challenged regions in the world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. My doctoral research at UNC is focused on exploring the impact that (lack of) health facility access to electricity and information communication technologies (ICT) has on infectious disease surveillance and control efforts. I graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2015, where I majored in International Development and minored in both GIS and Public Health. My interest in the field of health and medical geography was first sparked when I was an undergraduate and had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the rainforests of southeast Cameroon. My research examined the links between HIV prevalence and the logging and mining industries operating in the region, with a particular focus on the impacts to indigenous Baka communities. After graduating, I spent 3 years working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program, providing technical assistance to the DRC Ministry of Health on disease surveillance activities and research, primarily for African sleeping sickness, Ebola, and polio. Much of my work involved collaborating with local health zone staff in the interior of the country to develop more accurate maps of settlements and health zone boundaries, and implementing 'microcensus' data collection that could be used to produce updated, high-resolution gridded population estimates for the surveyed provinces. I enjoy all things map-related, and am an avid houseplant enthusiast.