May, 2024: New NSF CAREER grant to support research, education and outreach on global change and infectious disease ecology in California's Central Valley!
This CAREER award will support research on the impact of climate and land use change on the ecology and dynamics of West Nile virus in California's Central Valley, as well as education and outreach activities in collaboration with Bakersfield College and the Kern Mosquito and Vector Control District in Kern County California. Check out some media coverage in the UCSB Current!
October, 2023: Our new USDA funded project featured by NIFA: "Advancing Environmental Justice Through Improved Responses to Extreme Weather Events"
Our newly funded USDA Rapid Response to Extreme Weather Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems project on flooding and West Nile virus risk in the Central Valley has been featured by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in a blog post on advancing environmental justice.
August, 2023: USDA Rapid Response to Extreme Weather Events Across Food and Agricultural Systems grant awarded.
New grant awarded in response to 2023 atmospheric rivers that hit California and led to severe flooding in the Central Valley. Our team will be mapping and monitoring standing water across the southern San Joaquin Valley, understanding farmer and farm worker responses to the disaster, and modeling how West Nile virus risk will respond to these social and ecological changes.
November, 2022: PhD student Samantha Sambado and I are interviewed by NPR for the "Jefferson Exchange".
Sam and I discuss our recent work on Lyme disease ecology and epidemiology in ERL, and answer audience questions for a NPR radio show out of southern Oregon, the "Jefferson Exchange."
June, 2022: PhD student Anna Boser and I are interviewed for a USGS/EROS podcast, Eyes on Earth.
Anna Boser and I discuss our work with remote sensing, earth observation data, and recent ERL paper that Anna led using the ECOSTRESS sensor to map West Nile virus risk in the Central Valley in California. Give it a listen!
February - March, 2022: Lab researcher and UCSB McNair Scholar, Abraham Soto, accepted into MPH Programs!
Abraham has been accepted into top rated MPH Programs at UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University and Emory to study infectious disease epidemiology! Congratulations Abe!
November 2021: Research highlights from Coal Oil Point Reserve, UCNRS
Our research is highlighted in Coal Oil Point Reserve research highlights, by Owen Weber
February 14, 2021: Lab research highlighted in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on "The next pandemic"
Following earlier discussions with producers at Last Week Tonight about environmental change and pandemic risk, "The Next Pandemic" aired and included discussion of research in the lab on deforestation and malaria in the Amazon.
November 6, 2020: We have two studies in Global Change Biology (MacDonald et al. 2020; Couper et al. 2021) featured in the special issue "The effects of global change on human infectious disease"
The two studies are focused on the response of the tick vector of Lyme disease in California (MacDonald et al. 2020), and human Lyme disease incidence across the United States (Couper et al. 2021) to projected climate and land use change.
October 5, 2020: Interviewed about deforestation and pandemics for Now This
"How deforestation could lead to more pandemics" - Now This
September 1, 2020: NSF EEID grant awarded to investigate land use change impacts on vector-borne disease transmission
$2 million grant awarded in collaboration with Erin Mordecai, Lisa Mandle and Eric Lambin at Stanford, and Willy Lescano at Universidad Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru to investigate how vector-borne disease transmission risk and burden shifts as land use changes in Latin America: "How land use change transforms the landscape of vector-borne disease"
May 27, 2020: NSF EAGER grant awarded to improve epidemiological models of COVID-19 in the USA
$200k grant awarded in collaboration with Christopher Small (Columbia U), Justin Remais (UC Berkeley) and Dan Sousa (SDSU): "Rapid Production of Geospatial Network Inputs for Spatially Explicit Epidemiological Modeling of COVID-19 in the USA"
Story in the UCSB Current by Harrison Tasoff
Story in Santa Barbara Noozhawk
Story in UC Berkeley Public Health news
Story in the UCSB Current by Harrison Tasoff
Story in Santa Barbara Noozhawk
Story in UC Berkeley Public Health news
May 12, 2020: Interviewed for story in truthout about deforestation, agricultural practices and infectious disease emergence
April 15, 2020: Interviewed for Story in Mongabay about deforestation and pandemic emergence
"Rapid deforestation of Brazilian Amazon could bring next pandemic" by Thais Borges and Sue Branford
October 14, 2019: New study on malaria and deforestation published in PNAS
Media coverage:
Story in National Geographic, Science News, by Katarina Zimmer; and in the Italian language National Geographic
Story in BBC by Rachel Nuwer
Research highlighted in Nature Human Behaviour
Research highlighted in National Science Foundation Research News
Story in the UCSB Current, by Harrison Tasoff, and run by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Story in Santa Barbara Noozhawk
Interview for KCSB-FM radio, Santa Barbara, CA
Story in Stanford Medicine Scope Blog, by Roxanne Ohayon
Science Poem, by Dr. Sam Illingworth on the "Poetry of Science" Blog
Story in O Globo Newspaper, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Rafael Garcia
Story in Dagens Nyheter Newspaper, Sweden, by Maria Axelsson
Interview for Radio Universidad de Mar del Plata, Argentina with Silvana Bujan
Story in Mongabay, by John Cannon
Story in the NewScientist, by Adam Vaughan
Story in Inverse, by Nina Pullano
Story in Medical Daily, by Darwin Malicdem
Story in Ars Technica, by Cathleen O'Grady
Story in Meaww, by Mihika Basu
Story in News 18
Story in National Geographic, Science News, by Katarina Zimmer; and in the Italian language National Geographic
Story in BBC by Rachel Nuwer
Research highlighted in Nature Human Behaviour
Research highlighted in National Science Foundation Research News
Story in the UCSB Current, by Harrison Tasoff, and run by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Story in Santa Barbara Noozhawk
Interview for KCSB-FM radio, Santa Barbara, CA
Story in Stanford Medicine Scope Blog, by Roxanne Ohayon
Science Poem, by Dr. Sam Illingworth on the "Poetry of Science" Blog
Story in O Globo Newspaper, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Rafael Garcia
Story in Dagens Nyheter Newspaper, Sweden, by Maria Axelsson
Interview for Radio Universidad de Mar del Plata, Argentina with Silvana Bujan
Story in Mongabay, by John Cannon
Story in the NewScientist, by Adam Vaughan
Story in Inverse, by Nina Pullano
Story in Medical Daily, by Darwin Malicdem
Story in Ars Technica, by Cathleen O'Grady
Story in Meaww, by Mihika Basu
Story in News 18
June 18, 2019: Interviewed by KCSB radio for the program "Unknown Territories"
Program aired July 8 on Unknown Territories; interview by Alexander Stork
May 11, 2019: Interviewed for a story in the UC Santa Barbara Current
"Tick Talk" by Harrison Tasoff
May 2, 2017: Interviewed for a story in the Peninsula Press
"Tick-Tock: Springtime brings higher risk of tick-borne disease this year" by Nicholas Gailey
December 18, 2014: UCSB coverage of the Institute for the Study of Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts (ISEECI)
"Of Ecology and Evolution" by Julie Cohen
August 21, 2013: UCSB coverage of the Research Mentorship Program
"High School Students have a Summer Experience to Remember" by Julie Cohen