We are currently recruiting students to start in Fall 2021 at the University of Oklahoma Department of Biology. Please see here for more details.

Most pathogens that cause disease in humans, domestic animals, or wildlife can infect multiple species, and pathogen spillover is driven by the spatial and temporal intensity of infection in the reservoir host. Our work explores the ecological and evolutionary factors that determine infectious disease dynamics in reservoir hosts and cross-species transmission risk. We combine a range of approaches, including spatiotemporal field studies, meta-analysis, epidemiological models, immunology, and machine learning, to better understand how pathogens spread within and between populations and species and how environmental change will alter these infection dynamics. Much of our research focuses on zoonotic pathogens in bats and birds as tractable and relevant study systems, but we are fundamentally driven by questions. Some current topics of interest include: 

• How do anthropogenic diet shifts predict infection outcomes?
• Which host traits predict competence and pathogen sharing?
• How does urban habituation of migratory species affect disease?
• Do ecologically similar flying taxa differ in their immune response?
• Is host immunity predictable by environmental characteristics?

Our work aims to better understand how environmental change affects infectious disease risks and to generate robust predictions for guiding surveillance and management. We maintain a supportive lab environment that values collaborative science, quantitative rigor, creativity, and diversity.