Postdoctoral Fellow
(with Alison G. "Sunny" Power)
CV with downloadable reprints
Research interests: ecology of infectious disease, global change, plant ecology, the community - ecosystem interface.
The near-global human domination of ecological systems makes understanding the effects of human actions on ecosystems a matter of practical importance. It also raises many questions, creating an exciting intellectual frontier. The question that motivates my work is: By what mechanisms does global environmental change alter ecological systems? Answering whether and how infectious diseases of plants act as a mechanism by which environmental change alters terrestrial ecosystems is the overarching goal of my research. While I am interested in all components of environmental change, plant disease ecology is the unifying theme of my research. I am most excited by the potential for disease to integrate across hierarchical levels including ecosystem processes, community structure, population dynamics, and organismal physiology. My interests are grouped around four major issues:
Pathogen regulation of ecosystem processes.
Effects of environmental change on disease.
Pathogen mediation of global change.
