Human, Animal and Environmental Health (Professor Nicolas Ray)

Mission and activities

The Division « Human, Animal, and Environmental Health » performs highly inter-disciplinary research and teaching activities at the interfaces between public/global health, animal health, ecology, epidemiology, and environmental sciences. It collaborates extensively in research and teaching with the Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE) of the University of Geneva. Many studies of the Division are linked to One Health and Planetary Health approaches.

The GeoHealth group is dedicated to research and development in Global Health using advanced geospatial modelling, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Spatial Data Infrastructures, and spatial statistics. A strong focus of the group is on modelling physical accessibility to health services, targeting universal health coverage and resource allocation efficiency in low- and middle-income countries. The One Health unit promotes an integrated One Health approach and digital innovation to better understand and tackle global health challenges at the human-animal-ecosystem interface, with a current focus on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The Environmental Health unit develops and applies methodologies for health impact assessments, with a focus on urban environments and the promotion of healthy housing and healthy cities.