Dr. Meliker’s research contributes to the fields of exposure science, health geography, and environmental epidemiology.  His scholarship falls into two lines of inquiry: (1) identifying environmental factors that play important roles in disease morbidity, and (2) developing space-time methods that improve our ability to investigate exposure-disease relationships. Highlights of his work include pioneering development of space-time information systems for lifetime exposure reconstruction, and epidemiology of low-level exposure to arsenic in drinking water. He has published on drinking water contaminants, air pollutants, arsenic, cadmium, asthma, osteoporosis, stroke, and different types of cancers, and enjoys tackling environmental epidemiologic and spatio-temporal methodological problems to advance population health. 

Education:

Ph.D., Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health (2006)

Inter-Disciplinary Certificate in Spatial Analysis, University of Michigan (2003)

M.S., Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of
Public Health (2001)

B.A., Neuroscience, Oberlin College (1996)

Academic Interests:

Environmental Health, Environmental Epidemiology, Human Exposure Assessment, Health Geography, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Justice, Geographic Information Science, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, and History of Public Health

Editorial Board Member

2009-present. Spatial & Spatio-temporal Epidemiology

2011-present. Science of the Total Environment

Professional Memberships

International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, International Society of Exposure Science, Society for Epidemiologic Research, American Public Health Association, American Association of Geographers

Affiliations at Stony Brook University

2007-present    Consortium for Inter-Disciplinary Environmental Research (CIDER)
2008-present    Long Island Groundwater Research Institute
2008-present    Minerals, Metals, Metalloids, and Toxicity (3MT): NSF IGERT program
2009-present    Center for Impacts of Regional Climate Change (CIRCC) 

Research Activities & Projects:

Arsenic in Drinking Water and Bladder Cancer in Michigan
Spatial Analysis of Michigan State Cancer Registry Geocoded Data
Space-time Clustering Analysis of Residential Histories in Cancer Case-Control Studies
Methods for Improving Space-time Exposure Reconstruction
Methods for Incorporating Error in Exposure in Epidemiologic Analyses
Environmental Epidemiology of Low-level Arsenic, Cadmium and Mercury Exposure
Public Health Implications of Unregulated Electronic Waste Dismantling in Developing Countries

Select Peer-Reviewed Publications (out of 40): 

Meliker JR, Maio RF, Zimmerman MA, Kim HM, Smith SC, Wilson ML (2004) Spatial analysis of alcohol-related motor vehicle crash injuries in southeastern Michigan. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 36: 1129-1135.

Meliker JR, Slotnick MJ, AvRuskin GA, Kaufmann A, Jacquez GM, Nriagu JO (2005) Improving exposure assessment in environmental epidemiology: Application of spatio-temporal visualization tools. Journal of Geographic Systems, 7: 49-66.

Meliker JR, Franzblau A, Slotnick MJ, Nriagu JO (2006) Major Contributors to Inorganic Arsenic Intake in Southeastern Michigan.  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 209: 399-411.

Meliker JR, Slotnick MJ, AvRuskin GA, Kaufmann A, Fedewa SA, Goovaerts P, Jacquez GM, Nriagu JO (2007) Individual lifetime exposure to inorganic arsenic using a Space-Time Information System.  International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 80: 184-197.

Meliker JR, Wahl RL, Cameron L, Nriagu JO (2007) Arsenic in drinking water and cerebrovascular disease, chronic airways obstruction, diabetes mellitus, and kidney disease in Michigan: a standardized mortality ratio analysis. Environmental Health, 6: 4.

Slotnick MJ, Meliker JR, AvRuskin GA, Ghosh D, Nriagu JO (2007) Toenails as a biomarker of inorganic arsenic intake from drinking water and select foods.  Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A, 70: 148-158.

Meliker JR, Jacquez GM (2007) Space-time clustering of case-control data with residential histories: Insights into empirical induction periods, age-specific susceptibility, and calendar year-specific effects. Stochastic Environmental Research & Risk Assessment, 21, 625-634. {Special Issue on "Medical Geography as a Science of Interdisciplinary Knowledge Synthesis under Conditions of Uncertainty."}

Jacquez GM, Meliker J, Kaufmann A (2007) In search of induction and latency periods: Tests for space-time interaction and clustering accounting for residential mobility, known risk factors and covariates. International Journal of Health Geographics, 6:35.

Meliker JR, AvRuskin GA, Slotnick MJ, Goovaerts P, Schottenfeld D, Jacquez GM, Nriagu JO (2008). Validity of spatial models of arsenic concentrations in private well water. Environmental Research, 106: 42-50.

*Avruskin GA, Meliker JR, Jacquez GM (2008). Using satellite derived land cover information for multi – temporal validation of self-reported recall of proximity to farmland. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 18: 381-391. 

Meliker JR (2008) “Reconstructing individual-level exposure to environmental contaminants using Time-GIS.” Understanding Dynamics of Geographic Domains.  Eds. K. Hornsby, M. Yuan. Taylor & Francis CRC Press. 75-91.

*Gallagher CM, Kovach JS, Meliker JR (2008). Urinary cadmium and osteoporosis in U.S. women age 50-85, NHANES 1988-1994 and 1999-2004. Environmental Health Perspectives 116: 1338-1343.

Meliker JR, Jacquez GM, Goovaerts P, AvRuskin GA, Copeland G (2009) Breast and prostate cancer survival in Michigan: Can geographic analyses assist in understanding racial disparities? Cancer 115: 2212-2221.

Meliker JR, Jacquez GM, Goovaerts P, Copeland G, Yassine M (2009) Spatial cluster analysis of early stage breast cancer: A method for public health practice using cancer registry data. Cancer Causes and Control 20:1061-1069.

*Gallagher CM, Goovaerts P, Jacquez GM, Hao Y, Jemal A, Meliker JR (2009) Racial disparities in lung cancer mortality in U.S. congressional districts, 1990-2001. Spatial & Spatio-temporal Epidemiology 1: 41-47.

Maxwell SK, Meliker JR, Goovaerts P (2010) Use of land surface remotely sensed satellite and airborne data for environmental exposure assessment in cancer research. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 20: 176-185.

Meliker JR, Slotnick MJ, AvRuskin GA, Schottenfeld D, Jacquez GM, Wilson ML, Goovaerts P, Franzblau A, Nriagu JO (2010) Lifetime exposure to arsenic in drinking water and bladder cancer: A population-based case-control study in Michigan. Cancer Causes and Control 21: 745-757.

*Rivera-Nunez Z, Meliker JR, Linder AM, Nriagu JO (2010) Reliability of spot urine samples in assessing arsenic exposure.  International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 213: 259-264.

Lisabeth LD, Ahn HJ, Chen JJ, Sealy-Jefferson S, Burke JF, Meliker JR (2010) Arsenic in drinking water and stroke hospitalizations in Michigan. Stroke 41:2499-2504.

Meliker JR, Goovaerts P, Jacquez GM, Nriagu JO (2010) Incorporating individual-level distributions of exposure error in epidemiologic analyses: An example using arsenic in drinking water and bladder cancer. Annals of Epidemiology 20: 750-758.

*Gallagher CM, Meliker JR (2010) Blood and urine cadmium, blood pressure, and hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environmental Health Perspectives 118: 1676-1684.

Meliker JR, *Sloan CD (2011) Spatio-temporal epidemiology: Principles and opportunities. Spatial & Spatio-Temporal Epidemiology 2: 1-9.

Jacquez GM, Slotnick MJ, Meliker JR, AvRuskin G, Copeland G, Nriagu J (2011) Accuracy of commercially available residential histories for epidemiologic studies. American Journal of Epidemiology 173: 236-243.           

*Gallagher CG, Meliker JR (2012) Mercury and thyroid autoantibodies in U.S. women, NHANES 2007-2008. Environment International 40: 39-43.

*Rivera–Núñez Z, Meliker JR, Meeker JD, Slotnick MJ, Nriagu JO (In Press) Urinary arsenic species, toenail arsenic, and estimates of arsenic intake in a Michigan population with low levels of arsenic in drinking water. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

*Research/Student Assistant