About
Jan Rigby is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, affiliated with the Social Sciences Institute (MUSSI) and the National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG). Her research focuses on health geography, spatial epidemiology, GIS applications, and poverty-related issues. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers and actively participates in professional organizations such as Radical Statistics Society and the Geographical Society of Ireland. Rigby has held roles in various committees, including the Academic Discipline Committee (interim Chair in 2016), University Promotions Board, and the SFI StratAG Governance Board as Programme manager.
Her consultancy work includes strategic GIS planning for the Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network and advising on a €90m budget allocation for Special European Projects. Rigby has a strong commitment to capacity-building initiatives in GIS for health research in low-income countries, particularly in Thailand, Malawi, Kenya, and Ireland. This involves open-source GIS training to reduce costs and enhance global health research capabilities.
Rigby has advised four PhD students, including Manting Tao (2010), Simon Duphey (2014), Oviasu Osaretin (2012), and John Andrew Whittingham (2011). Her outreach efforts include invited seminars on ageing and health, public lectures on GIS barriers, and presentations on health inequalities. Notably, she received the Honorary Research Fellow award from the New Zealand Ministry of Health in 2004.
