A transdisciplinary research team at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) has received a significant National Science Foundation (NSF) award for the project titled "GCR: Predicting Flood-Related Health Threats in At-Risk U.S. Communities." The project will begin on September 1, 2025, with a Phase I funding amount of approximately $1.2 million for two years and a potential Phase II funding amount of $2.4 million for three years.

Theresa Gildner, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology, serves as the Principal Investigator leading the project. The team also includes Bo Li, Stanley A. Sawyer Professor of Statistics & Data Science; Elizabeth Mallott, Assistant Professor of Biology; Fangqiong Ling, Assistant Professor of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering; and Claire Masteller, Assistant Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, who serve as Co-Principal Investigators.

Flooding poses serious threats to many communities, damaging homes, polluting drinking water, causing sewage systems to overflow, and exposing people to health risks. To address these issues, the project will gather detailed neighborhood-level data to better understand how frequent flooding affects well-being. By combining community feedback with data on flooding, environmental microbes, and health outcomes, the research team will develop new ways to predict which areas are most at risk. The findings will help residents and local leaders identify and reduce health dangers related to flooding.

The research team will build a comprehensive database that links flood frequency, the presence of pathogens in water and soil, residents' experiences, and rates of gastrointestinal infections in communities. Professor Li will play key roles in conducting geospatial analyses to examine the relationships between flooding, pathogen levels, and infection risk, as well as in applying advanced Bayesian models and techniques to predict how flooding influences infection risk over time and across different locations.

We are excited that our faculty's expertise in statistics and data science will help the WashU research team address critical public health risks and societal challenges related to flooding. Congratulations to Professor Li!