Lelys Guenni

Lelys Guenni is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Griffith University (Australia) and has over 25 years of teaching experience at Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela. Her research focuses on environmental statistics, spatial-temporal analysis, and risk assessment under climate change.

She has held visiting appointments at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Northern Illinois University. Her expertise includes Bayesian modeling, wavelet analysis, and hydrological studies. She contributed to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as a lead author and was part of the IGBP’s Biospherical Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle project.

• Education:
  • PhD in Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, Australia.
  • MSc in Water Resources Engineering, Simón Bolívar University.
  • Bachelor in Mathematics, Simón Bolívar University.

Her research spans climate change impacts, extreme rainfall patterns, and environmental vulnerability. Key areas include water quality analysis in Cambodia, malaria vector ecology in Brazil, and renewable energy forecasting using neural networks.

Awards: Recipient of the Zayed International Prize for the Environment (2005).

Editorial Roles: Editor for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Heliyon, and Environmetrics.

Her work bridges environmental data science with policy, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to ecological challenges.