I discovered medical/health geography only at the end of my undergraduate degree when I stumbled upon the work of Gerald Pyle and David Patterson while writing my senior thesis on the 1918 influenza epidemic.  Their and Alfred Crosby's spatial depictions of the epidemic's progress led to me a discipline I had not previously realized existed: medical geography. 

At UNC-Chapel Hill I worked with Mike Emch and Melinda Meade, learning the history of the field of disease ecology and medical geography and GIS and spatial statistics.  My research focused on diarrheal disease in Bangladesh and avian influenza in Vietnam.

Since moving to the University of Iowa, my research interests have broadened to include drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus and its relationship to food (pork) production as well as avian influenza in settings other than Vietnam (China, the US, Egypt), also with regard to food (poultry) production. 

I can be reached at margaret-carrel@uiowa.edu