People

Current Lab Members

Johnny Uelmen, Ph.D., M.S.

Johnny Uelmen is an Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a proud triple Badger, completing a B.S. (Evolutionary Biology) and two M.S. (Entomology & Epidemiology) degrees before completing a Ph.D. in Epidemiology in the Department of Pathobiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He completed his postdoctoral studies in the Martin Lab within the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan and also the Carney Lab within the Department of Integrative Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida. He was then Assistant Director for the Triangle Center of Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM) at Duke University before coming to Wisconsin.

Shaelyn Mullins

Epidemiology M.S. Graduate Student

Shaelyn received her Bachelor's degree from UW-Madison and is working on her Master's. Her research interests include infectious disease and related health disparities, as well as the mechanisms and fall out of natural disasters and their effects on human populations.

Asma Sulieman

Information Science B.S. Undergraduate Student

Hello, I'm Asma Sulieman an undergraduate. I am fascinated by the multidisciplinary approach through the one health lens; The infectious disease aspect and how pathogens spread. Alongside the breaking and formulating interventions of such disease cycles. I look forward to getting exposure to more areas through Dr.Uelmen's lab.

Marcus Jabari Moise

Philosophy B.S. Undergraduate Student

Marcus is currently a senior working on his bachelor's degree at UW-Madison with hopes to pursue a master's in pharmacology. His research interests include infectious diseases and public health as well as disparities in the availability and quality of healthcare globally.

Simrik Bhandari

Epidemiology Ph.D. Graduate Student

Biography: I hold a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Kathmandu University and an MS in Geography from the University of Florida. My graduate research focused on dengue transmission in Nepal, where I analyzed incidence hotspots and cold spots and projected future transmission suitability for mosquito vectors.

My interests include vector-borne disease dynamics, spatial analysis, and disease clustering. Having witnessed a dengue outbreak firsthand, I became particularly curious about the role of climate in disease spread. In the Uelmen Lab, I’m excited to expand my work on disease modeling, climate change impacts, and spatial epidemiology to support global health efforts in surveillance and intervention planning.

Social media handle: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/simriksb), Bluesky (simrikbhandari.bsky.social)

Country of Origin: Nepal

Reilly Wagner

Global Health & Music Performance B.A. Undergraduate Student

Reilly is a junior at UW-Madison working towards her bachelor's degree. She is interested in the relationship between public health and climate change, as well as how social determinants affect related health disparities.

Alyssa Beck, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Alyssa received her Bachelor in Science from UW-Madison in 2015, Master of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University in 2018, and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2025. Her PhD dissertation focused on the use of electronic health records and bioinformatics methods to characterize antimicrobial-resistant infections in Colorado. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Uelmen Lab.

Her research interests include the epidemiological study and public health prevention of emerging infectious diseases, impacts of climate on health, and health disparities. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, triathlon training, and spending time with her family, backyard chickens, and cat named Pippa.

Meadow Corfits

Global Health & Environmental Studies B.S. Undergraduate Student

Meadow is an undergraduate student majoring in Global Health and Environmental Studies. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, she has a strong interest in infectious diseases and plans to pursue a master's degree in Epidemiology after completing her bachelor's degrees.

www.linkedin.com/in/meadow-corfits-1a4689368