Participants

Maria Bavia ( Public Health/ Epidemiology ) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bahia Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Dr Bavia is in her third year as Principal Investigator on a 5-year Core Grant from the NIH-funded Tropical Medicine Research Center at the Faculty of Medicine, UFBA, Salvador, Brazil. Her project objectives are to develop a Geographic Information System methods for Control Program Management of Schistosomiasis in Bahia State, Brazil. Robert Bergquist - Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, Public Health UNDP/World Bank/WHO, Geneva, Switzerland. Dr Bergquist has many years experience with WHO on schistosomiasis control programs worldwide. He has been responsible for the Programme on Tropical Disease Research and Training (TDR) vaccine development program and most recently served was in charge of the schistosomiasis program effort in TDR.

Marius Fuentes (Parasitology) Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain. Dr Fuentes, recently developed a GIS model for assessing risk of zoonotic human fascioliasis in the Altiplano of Ecuador and Chile while on sabattical leave at Louisiana State University. As Associate Professor at University of Valencia, he is part of a group that as had continuous European Union, WHO and Spanish Government funding to study control of Parasitic Diseases in the Altiplano of the Andes. The Faculty of Pharmacology offers a Master in Tropical Parasitic Diseases each year which is attended by 20-30 students from Latin America and elsewhere.

M.M. El Bahy (Parasitology) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza Egypt. Dr El Bahy, a Professor at Cairo University was Co-Principal Investigator on a 5-year project 'Geographic Information Systems and Control of Schistosomiasis in Egypt' funded by the USAID/Egyptian Ministry of Health 'Schistosomiasis Research Project'. He was trained in GIS methodology as a Peace Fellow in the USA and was responsible for developing and validating the GIS in Egypt. Michele Bernardi (Climatology/ Sustainable Development) Department Plant Ecology, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy. Dr Bernardi, an FAO agrometrorologist, has had key involvement in development of Crop Production System Databases for East Africa and publication of FAO climatology technical papers and research articles. He was selected because of his expertise in climatology, ecology and environmental database resources. O.K. Huh (Geology) Coastal Studies Institute - Earth Scan Laboratory, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. Dr Huh, a Professor in the Coastal Studies Institute with many years experience in oceanographic and land remote sensing applications, is Director of the LSU Earth Scan Laboratory, a NASA collaborating laboratory that supplies data and services to a variety of governmental, university and private organizations on satellite sensor data products. The ESL houses a rooftop receiver and hardware software systems that downlink and archive GOES, SeaWIFs and AVHRR satellite data. Services are provided by contract to the EROS Data Center for the Global Land 1km dataset, the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and the National Hurricane Center. T.K. Kristensen (Malacology ) Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory, Charlottenlund Denmark. Dr Kristensen, a biologist and former director of the Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory, is a member of a unit that is renowned for its long history of field and laboratory research and training contributions to malacology and control of snail borne diseases, particularly in Africa. He has worked extensively in field malacology, snail genetics and has access to the extensive worldwide DBL collection and published archives on snail host of human and animal disease. J.B Malone (Parasitology) School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, LA. Dr Malone is a Professor of Veterinary Parasitology with long standing research interest in the ecology of snail borne disease. Initial work with Fasciola in Louisiana developed to include schistosomiasis and a research program emphasis on international medical and veterinary health. He has published extensively on health applications of GIS and remote sensing. Dr Malone will serve as Team Leader. J.M. Yilma (Parasitology) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. Dr Yilma, an Associate Professor at Addis Ababa University, is Co-Principal Investigator on an NIH Funded Grant to LSU entitled 'Geographic Information Systems and Control of Schistosomiasis in Ethiopia'. He recently completed a Fulbright Senior Fellowship for sabbatical leave studies on development of GIS models for control Fasciolosis in East Africa. X.N. Zhou (Malacology) Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Jiangsu PR China. Dr Zhou did his PhD studies at the Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory genetics of snail hosts of Schistosomiasis in China and is Principal Investigator on a WHO funded project on use of GIS to define risk of schistosomiasis associated with environmental change associated with construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. He completed three-months training in the USA, with two Chinese Ministry of Health colleagues, on GIS methods for that project. He organized a recent WHO sponsored GIS Training Workshop in Wuxi, PR China and is current Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases.