Rate My Professor Ryan Carney

Ryan Carney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Brown University in 2016, an M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Brown University in 2013, an M.P.H. in Epidemiology from Yale University in 2010, an M.B.A. in Technology from Yale University in 2010, a B.A. with honors in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003, and a B.A. in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. Carney joined the University of South Florida in 2016 and conducts research in paleontology and epidemiology. In paleontology, he examines the functional morphology and evolution of avian flight in Archaeopteryx and extant dinosaurs using 3D imaging, modeling, animation, virtual reality, and augmented reality. In epidemiology, he focuses on surveillance and control of mosquito-borne diseases including malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, and Zika virus, employing artificial intelligence, citizen science from apps such as iNaturalist, Mosquito Alert, and Mosquito Habitat Mapper, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and the DYCAST early warning system. His projects involve NSF- and NIH-funded collaborations with NASA and the CDC.

Carney's key publications include "Artificial intelligence and citizen science as a tool for global mosquito surveillance: Madagascar case study" in Insects (2025), "A new Archaeopteryx from the lower Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation at Mühlheim (Late Jurassic)" in Fossil Record (2025), "GLOBE OBSERVER: a case study in advancing earth system knowledge with AI-powered citizen science" in Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2024), a patent for "Systems and methods for classifying mosquitoes based on extracted masks of anatomical components from images" (US 12,147,504 B2, 2024), and "Classifying stages in the gonotrophic cycle of mosquitoes from images using computer vision techniques" in Scientific Reports (2023). He has received the Excellence in Innovation Award (2025), CAS Liberal Arts Teaching Award, Outstanding Research Achievement Award, Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, Outstanding Faculty Award, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award (2017), and Fellowship of The Explorers Club. Carney teaches Digital Dinosaurs and Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, utilizing immersive technologies for education and outreach.