Lisa Sattenspiel

Professor Lisa Sattenspiel is a leading scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri. Her research focuses on the ecology and transmission dynamics of infectious diseases, with a specialization in modeling the geographic spread of epidemics in historical and modern populations. She employs agent-based computational models to analyze how social behaviors, demographic factors, and environmental conditions influence disease propagation. Current projects include comparative analyses of the 1918 influenza pandemic and contemporary pandemics like COVID-19, with an emphasis on rural-urban disparities and Indigenous health outcomes. Her work integrates historical archival data with advanced quantitative methods to understand complex disease interactions, such as co-occurring tuberculosis and malnutrition in early 20th-century Newfoundland.

Research Interests:

• Epidemiology of historical and modern pandemics
• Agent-based modeling of disease transmission
• Geographic spread dynamics of infectious diseases
• Demographic transitions in historical populations
• Health disparities in Indigenous and rural communities

Publications Highlight:

• Authored The Geographic Spread of Infectious Diseases: Models and Applications (Princeton University Press)
• Recent articles in BMJ Public Health, American Journal of Epidemiology, and Nature

Advising: Currently not accepting new graduate students, but open to collaborations with researchers in related fields.

Labs/Teams: Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams on pandemic modeling, including partnerships with epidemiologists, demographers, and computer scientists.