Infectious Disease Dynamics and Population Biology

My group’s research unites theory and empirical work to address basic and applied questions in infectious disease dynamics including aspects of population biology, evolution, climate, behavior, genetics, and conservation, and I would be excited to develop collaborations and advise graduate students on these topics. A key aim in our work is to understand the drivers of pathogen transmission and the impacts on host populations. We begin each project by developing a mathematical model of the system to generate hypotheses and then test these hypotheses by gathering empirical data. Here is a list of papers (with a few comments) that are emblematic of the research in our lab. Our current research in infectious disease dynamics can be divided into two general areas: 1) Local drivers of pathogen transmission, including host community composition, land use, and climate; 2) The impact of disease on populations, and host responses, including the evolution of resistance and tolerance. We work on several pathogen systems including COVID-19, West Nile virus, avian malaria in Hawaiian birds, Nipah virus in Bangladesh, Lyme disease, white-nose syndrome in bats, chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and avian influenza.

 Resources for grad students:

Great webpage from Dr. Spencer Hall at Indiana with endless resources.