Mark M. Janko, PhD, MSPH, joined the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in 2025 as an assistant professor and is a part of the Center for Climate Change and Health Equity.  Janko is an environmental and spatial epidemiologist, biostatistician and population health geographer whose research explores the complex relationships between land use, climate change, environmental variability and infectious disease dynamics. He specializes in collecting primary data and using hierarchical Bayesian spatio-temporal modeling to investigate how environmental and social factors influence the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, as well as emerging infectious diseases. Janko leads and collaborates on interdisciplinary projects across the Amazon and Congo Basins, Madagascar and Panama’s Darién region. His work is deeply engaged with both local communities and policy-makers, aiming to translate scientific insights into actionable public health strategies. Janko is the principal investigator of the NIH-funded K01 project, ELIMINAR-Malaria, which integrates climate data, human mobility patterns and parasite genomics to understand malaria transmission in the Amazon. He also contributes to multiple NIH-, NASA- and NSF-funded initiatives focused on climate-health interactions. He holds a PhD in geography and an MSPH in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MA in international studies and global health from the University of Denver.

• PhD, geography, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• MSPH, biostatistics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• MA, international studies & global health, University of Denver
• BA, history, University of Colorado-Boulder