Marcia Castro is the Andelot Professor of Demography; and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research is focused on the geographical and demographic distribution of infectious diseases, particularly malaria, the identification of social, biological, and environmental risks associated with vector-borne diseases in the tropics, the modeling of determinants of malaria transmission, with particular emphasis on generating evidence for better control strategies, the expansion of the Brazilian Amazon frontier and the social and environmental impacts of large-scale development projects in this region. Castro applies geographical information systems, remote sensing, and spatial statistics to her research, as well as proposed novel methods in spatial analysis, and promotes the use of environmental management approaches to improve urban health.