People
Leadership
Leah R Johnson (she/hers)
Dr Johnson is an Associate Professor of Statistics at Virginia Tech. Her expertise is in developing statistical methods to parameterize complex models of biological systems from disparate data sources in order to: improve our understanding of biological processes; improve our ability to use the models for prediction; and elucidate sources of uncertainty in these systems. She has worked on a broad array of systems, applying quantitative modeling approaches to understand how environment and human changes to the landscape can impact energetics, foraging behavior, and population dynamics of animals. Her research currently focuses on understanding how climate impacts transmission of vector-borne diseases, and how to predict changes in where disease is likely to be transmitted. Her approach is to use theoretical models to understand how systems behave generally, while simultaneously seeking to confront and validate models with data and make predictions. Thus, a significant portion of her research focuses on methods for statistical — particularly Bayesian — inference and validation for mechanistic mathematical models of biological and ecological systems. (website)
Sadie J Ryan (she/hers)
Dr Ryan is an Associate Professor of Medical Geography at the University of Florida. She is trained in quantitative ecology, demography, anthropology and geography. Her research seeks to understand the interaction of humans, animals, landcover and climate change, and disease dynamics at multiple scales. Her research spans multiple systems of human diseases and non-human animals of conservation interest, with an emphasis on creating, applying, and disseminating tools for assessment and intervention.
She has conducted research on disease impacts in great apes, baboon foraging and parasitology, social-ecological constraints on group size in howler monkeys, how primate social systems affect population disease dynamics, African buffalo movement and demographic interactions with savanna landscapes, New England cottontail rabbit parasitology and landscape conservation, forest cover, conservation governance, and climate change in Africa’s Albertine rift, human-environment interactions in and around parks landscape in Uganda, household level factors affecting dengue risk in Ecuador, spatial patterns of arboviral and mosquito dynamics in Barbados, Dominica, Ecuador, climate change projections and geographic shifts in transmission of dengue, Zika, and malaria, multiscale spatial models of intervention for arboviral disease and malaria, and more. (website)
Samraat Pawar (he/his)
Reader (Assoc. Prof.) in Theoretical Ecology at Imperial College London (ICL). His research integrates mathematical modelling with ecoinformatics to study how individual metabolism affects the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of biological systems. Recent work extendeds the Metabolic Theory of Ecology to species interactions. He is PI of BioTraits and Co-I of VecTraits, respectively, UK NERC and BBSRC-NIH (EEID RCN) funded global traits databases, which will contribute directly to VectorByte. He is Director of the Computational Methods in Ecology & Evolution Masters course and NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Quantitative & Modelling skills in Ecology & Evolution, both of which will help supply relevant training to recruited project staff and in the proposed workshops. Pawar was responsible for much of the initial innovation for the core VectorByte databases. His involvement will allow a seamless continuation of proposed activities from previous work. (website)
Samuel Rund (he/his)
Assistant Research Professor in the Center for Research Computing, University of Notre Dame (ND) and a project manager for the VectorBase project where his primary responsibilities are on web feature development and user interface design for the web portal, and on acquisition and curation of vector population dynamics and pathogen status data sets. His research focuses on ecology and open data/ open science issues. He brings extensive experience working with academic and governmental vector surveillance authorities in the US and abroad on issues of data sharing. He serves as a member of the American Mosquito Control Association’s Science and Technology GIS Subcommittee. (website)
Team
Paul J Huxley (he/his)
Dr Huxley is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr Leah Johnson’s Quantitative Ecological Dynamics lab (website) in the Department of Statistics at Virginia Tech. He is trained in both conventional lab-based experimental approaches and computational methods. He is interested in ecology across scales - understanding how current patterns of biodiversity reflect environmental conditions as well as historical patterns of evolution. He is particularly interested in ecological responses to changing environments - from life history responses through to population and community dynamics. He currently uses statistical and mathematical models to better understand and predict patterns of covariation between life history traits in disease vectors and other arthropods. He is the curator of the VecTraits Database.
Jarek Nabrzyski
Jarek Nabrzyski is the founding director of the Center for Research Computing at Notre Dame (CRC), and a concurrent professor of Computer Science and Engineering. His research is focused on distributed ledger technologies and quantum computing. In the CRC he directs the Quantum Computing Lab and, together with Dr. Ian Taylor, co-directs the Blockchain Research Lab. He enjoys building and managing teams and engaging in complex science and industry collaborations. He was a Principal Investigator on over 50 national and international research and development projects developing cyberinfrastructure for both science and industry.
Catherine (Cat) A Lippi (she/hers)
Dr. Lippi is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Sadie Ryan’s Quantitative Disease Ecology and Conservation (QDEC) lab (QDEC Lab Group - Home (sadieryan.net)) at the University of Florida. She is trained in medical geography, epidemiology, medical entomology, and wildlife ecology. She is interested in the spatial ecology of vector-borne diseases, and their environmental, climatological, and social-ecological drivers. She works with many vector-borne disease transmission systems, including mosquitoes and ticks, and with diverse host communities spanning humans, plants, livestock, and wildlife. Her work often uses spatial statistics and modeling to understand patterns and processes of vector-borne disease at multiple scales. She is also involved with creating resources and training materials on data platforms and analytical tools for vector-borne disease research.
Advisory Board
Lauren Cator
Senior Lecturer, Ecology and Evolution at Imperial College. Her work focuses on the behavioral ecology of mosquitoes. She is a PI for the VectorBiTE RCN.
Ary Faraji
Director, Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District. He is the president of the American Mosquito Control Association.
Alison (Sunny) Powers
Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. Her research includes interactions between agricultural and natural ecosystems, agroecology, and the ecology and evolution of plant pathogens, including VBDs of plants.
George Christophides
Professor, Imperial College. He was a key player in the development and implementation of VectorBase.
Holly Gaff
Professor, Dept. of Biology at Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on ticks and tick-borne diseases using a combination of field work, mathematical modeling, and outreach involving applied control methods.