Yingru Li

Dr. Yingru Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Central Florida (UCF), part of the College of Sciences. Her research focuses on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), spatial statistics, environmental health, and social inequality. She explores socioeconomic disparities, health disparities, obesity, retail location analysis, environmental pollution, and geospatial modeling. Before joining UCF in 2015, she was on the faculty at Auburn University. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Utah (2012) and a Master’s in GIS from the University of Cincinnati (2006).

Her current research emphasizes the interplay between social and environmental factors affecting children’s behavior, psychosocial well-being, and weight status; the role of social networks in dietary and physical activity behaviors; food environment assessment (e.g., retailers, community gardens); environmental pollution and health disparities in China; and advanced geospatial modeling techniques like agent-based models and residual kriging.

Her recent work addresses food insecurity among university students, pandemic impacts on Medicare beneficiaries’ mental health, and spatial disparities in food access. She has collaborated on studies ranging from GIS certification program analyses to medical travel patterns in China.

Awards and grants are not explicitly listed in the provided materials. She advises no listed students but contributes to UCF’s sociology program and research initiatives in environmental and health geography.

Dr. Li’s office is located in HPH 406D. Her research often integrates GIS with social and environmental data to address complex public health challenges, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary solutions for inequality and sustainability.