Dr Jessica Mendes is a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the CYCLONE Project (Climate Change Impacts on Early Childhood Health and Development: From Evidence to Action). Her current research focuses on the attribution of extreme climate events and their impacts on early childhood health and development. Within the CYCLONE Project since January 2026, she works closely with partners at the University of Oxford, UNICEF, the International Center for Equity in Health, and regional early childhood networks across Asia-Pacific and Africa. Her work in this Project bridges climate science, health, and policy engagement.
Trained as a geographer and spatial epidemiologist, Jessica holds a PhD from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, where she investigated the spatial drivers of dengue transmission using socioeconomic and environmental data. Her research has been supported by fellowships from renowned Brazilian funding agencies, including FAPESP and CAPES, reflecting experience in independent research development, project management, and research leadership.
She subsequently held a postdoctoral position in Quantitative Epidemiology at Lancaster University, where she contributed to cancer risk mapping and coordinated research across academic institutions, health services, and regional stakeholders. In 2023 Jessica joined the University of Oxford, and contributed to large international research consortia, the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) project.
Methodologically, Jessica has experience in spatial and spatiotemporal analysis, regression modelling, geostatistics, and data integration. She is proficient in R and a range of open-source geospatial tools, including QGIS, SaTScan, and GeoDa, and has experience conducting systematic reviews. She is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and mentoring, regularly co-supervising and supporting early-career researchers and contributing to publication development.
Through the CYCLONE Project, Jessica aims to strengthen SoGE’s contribution to global research on climate change, extreme events, and environmental determinants of early childhood development, ensuring that the impacts of climate change on young children are visible in both scientific and policy domains.
See the full list of Jessica's publications on ORCiD