Faculty
Alex Perkins
Eck Family Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Concurrent Assistant Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
RAPIDD Postdoctoral Fellow, NIH Fogarty International Center and UC Davis
PhD in Population Biology, University of California, Davis
BA in Computational Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
curriculum vitae
Alex is fascinated by a range of questions in population biology, and he loves thinking about them in a mathematical way. After working on a variety of problems in ecology and evolutionary biology as a student, he shifted his focus to applying ideas and techniques from population biology to understanding the dynamics of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission and control. Mosquito-borne diseases are great systems to work on both because there are endless unanswered research questions, and because the answers to many of those questions are relevant to the health and well-being of billions of people.
Alex Perkins
Eck Family Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Concurrent Assistant Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
RAPIDD Postdoctoral Fellow, NIH Fogarty International Center and UC Davis
PhD in Population Biology, University of California, Davis
BA in Computational Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
curriculum vitae
Alex is fascinated by a range of questions in population biology, and he loves thinking about them in a mathematical way. After working on a variety of problems in ecology and evolutionary biology as a student, he shifted his focus to applying ideas and techniques from population biology to understanding the dynamics of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission and control. Mosquito-borne diseases are great systems to work on both because there are endless unanswered research questions, and because the answers to many of those questions are relevant to the health and well-being of billions of people.
Sean Moore
Research Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Postdoc, National Center for Atmospheric Research
PhD in Zoology, Oregon State University
BS in Biology, Virginia Tech
BBA in Information Technology, College of William and Mary
curriculum vitae
Sean's research is focused on combining surveillance and modeling approaches to understand how socioeconomic, climatic, and ecological drivers influence the emergence and spread of water-borne and vector-borne pathogens of humans. His research specialties include integrating ecological and climatic variables into mechanistic and statistical models to explain infectious disease dynamics and predict future transmission dynamics. He is currently involved in research on the epidemiology of cholera, chikungunya, and Zika.
Research Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Postdoc, National Center for Atmospheric Research
PhD in Zoology, Oregon State University
BS in Biology, Virginia Tech
BBA in Information Technology, College of William and Mary
curriculum vitae
Sean's research is focused on combining surveillance and modeling approaches to understand how socioeconomic, climatic, and ecological drivers influence the emergence and spread of water-borne and vector-borne pathogens of humans. His research specialties include integrating ecological and climatic variables into mechanistic and statistical models to explain infectious disease dynamics and predict future transmission dynamics. He is currently involved in research on the epidemiology of cholera, chikungunya, and Zika.
Postdocs
Guido España
Indiana CTSI Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD in Electrical Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
BS in Electrical Engineering, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Guido is working on detailed simulation models of dengue virus transmission and applying them in the context of dengue vaccine trials.
James Soda
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD in Computational Science, Florida State University
MS in Computational Science, Florida State University
MA in Biology, SUNY Stony Brook
BS in Biology, Western Washington University
James' research interests broadly focus on statistical applications to ecology, evolution, and medicine, with an emphasis on time series analysis and the representation of temporally-dynamic data. His current work focuses on the estimation of parameters in agent-based models using time series as training data, particularly to model the dynamics of the dengue, Zika, and chikungunya viruses. He also has additional interests and expertise in morphometrics and artificial neural networks.
Sean Cavany
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
MSci in Mathematics, Imperial College London
Sean is generally interested in creating mathematical models of infectious diseases and using them to aid understanding of the impact of interventions. His current research focuses on developing an agent based model of Zika virus with the aim of optimizing vector control in the event of an outbreak. His recently completed PhD used a range of approaches to shed light on tuberculosis contact investigations in London, and involved molecular epidemiology and cost-effectiveness analysis in addition to modeling.
Anita Lerch
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
Anita is interested in genomic epidemiology of malaria.
Amir Siraj
Postdoctoral Researcher with ND Environmental Change Initiative
PhD in Geography and the Environment, University of Denver
MA in Climate and Society, Columbia University
BS in Mathematics, Addis Ababa University
Amir's primary research interests include developing mathematical and statistical models for coupled natural and human systems involving spatial and temporal processes, particularly as they pertain to climate impacts on public health. His recently completed dissertation focused on impacts of climate change on malaria, and you can see his first published chapter here. His background includes computational solutions to data capture, analysis, and visualization.
Graduate Students
Rachel Oidtman
Graduate Student
PhD Candidate in Biological Sciences
BS in Natural Resources, Cornell University
Rachel is in the fourth year of her PhD, and has broad interests in modeling and statistics applied to ecological and epidemiological questions. Her current work focuses on investigating environmental and anthropogenic drivers of vector-borne disease spread and emergence. She particularly enjoys using Bayesian models to quantify uncertainty in the ecological systems she researches. Rachel can be reached at roidtman@nd.edu.
Annaliese Wieler
Graduate Student
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
BS in Biology and Mathematics, Tabor College
Annaliese is in the first year of her PhD and is interested in modeling vector intervention trials.
John Huber
Graduate Student
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
MPhil in Veterinary Science, University of Cambridge
BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, University of Notre Dame
After doing research in the lab as an undergraduate at Notre Dame, John went to Cambridge and completed an MPhil with support from a Gates Scholarship. He is now back at Notre Dame as a PhD student in Biological Sciences and is supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Quan Tran Minh
Graduate Student
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
MD, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Vietnam
After graduating as a medical doctor, Quan decided to become a full-time researcher and develop his interest in analyzing medical and biological data. He recently spent two and a half years at the Department of Mathematical Modeling in the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit investigating the transmission of chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis viruses by applying quantitative methods to serological and case notification data.
Alan Costello
Graduate Student (advised by Sean Moore)
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
MSc in Geocomputation, National Centre for Geocomputation
BA (Hons) Geography and Music, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Alan’s background is in spatiotemporal epidemiology with a focus on climatology and biogeography. Before coming to Notre Dame, Alan worked for eSpatial, a leading cloud mapping software company. His previous research concentrated on modeling diabetes prevalence in Ireland and dengue surveillance and control methods in Malaysia. His current project centers on the epidemiology and forecasting of cholera in Africa.
Marya Poterek
Graduate Student
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
BS in Science-Computing, University of Notre Dame
Marya is beginning as a PhD student in fall 2019.
Carly Barbera
Graduate Student (co-advised by Jason Rohr)
PhD Student in Biological Sciences
BS in Biology, Vassar College
Carly is beginning as a PhD student in fall 2019. She will be part of a team funded by a USDA-NIFA EEID grant on bluetongue virus.
Undergraduates
Cassie Miller
Undergraduate Researcher
Pursuing a BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
Cassie is working with Rachel Oidtman on a project to model exposure to vector-borne diseases based on data about human activity patterns.
Georgia Mudd
Undergraduate Researcher
Pursuing a BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics
Georgia is working with John Huber on a project to estimate the serial interval of Plasmodium vivax malaria using a combination of modeling and empirical data.
Molly Hartlage
Undergraduate Researcher
Pursuing a BS in Biological Sciences
Molly is working with Sean Moore on a project modeling the impact of vaccination on Japanese encephalitis.
Kathryn Strimbu
Undergraduate Researcher
Pursuing a BS in Biological Sciences
Kathryn is working on a project modeling vaccine demand for emerging diseases.
Maggie O'Connor
Undergraduate Researcher
Pursuing a BS in Biological Sciences
Maggie is learning R programming while she explores different research projects in the lab.
Alumni
Quirine ten Bosch, PhD in Biological Sciences, 2017, Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, Netherlands
Michael Prough, MS in Global Health, 2016, clinical research coordinator at University of Miami
Karly Harrod, MS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2016
Jonah Barreto, MS in Global Health, 2017, employed at Epic Systems Corporation in Madison, WI
Adam Haydel, BS in Science-Business, 2016, MD student at Louisiana State University
Ethan Holland, BS in Biological Sciences, 2017
John Huber, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2017, MPhil student and Gates Scholar at Cambridge
Caleb Johnson, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2017, data scientist at BoozAllenHamilton
Henri Chung, BS in Biological Sciences, 2019, PhD student in Computational Biology at Iowa State University
Katherine Koh, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2019, gap year before medical school
Marya Poterek, BS in Science-Computing, 2019, PhD student in Biological Sciences at University of Notre Dame
Maggie Walters, BS in Biological Sciences, 2019, Post-Bachelor Fellow at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Yutong Yao, BS in Pre-Health and Economics, 2019, MPH student at Emory University
Michael Prough, MS in Global Health, 2016, clinical research coordinator at University of Miami
Karly Harrod, MS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2016
Jonah Barreto, MS in Global Health, 2017, employed at Epic Systems Corporation in Madison, WI
Adam Haydel, BS in Science-Business, 2016, MD student at Louisiana State University
Ethan Holland, BS in Biological Sciences, 2017
John Huber, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2017, MPhil student and Gates Scholar at Cambridge
Caleb Johnson, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2017, data scientist at BoozAllenHamilton
Henri Chung, BS in Biological Sciences, 2019, PhD student in Computational Biology at Iowa State University
Katherine Koh, BS in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, 2019, gap year before medical school
Marya Poterek, BS in Science-Computing, 2019, PhD student in Biological Sciences at University of Notre Dame
Maggie Walters, BS in Biological Sciences, 2019, Post-Bachelor Fellow at Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
Yutong Yao, BS in Pre-Health and Economics, 2019, MPH student at Emory University
