Abdul Ali, Nicholas Adam, Kane Moser, and JP Schmidt have all joined the Drake lab at the start of the Fall 2023 semester.

Abdul joins the Drake lab with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and Masters in Microbiology. His interdisciplinary background supports his passion for understanding and addressing infectious diseases from an ecological perspective. His current research interests are ecological factors influencing disease emergence and infectious disease transmission and dynamics.

Nicholas is an alumni of the University of Malawi and comes to us with experience in epidemiological research and health informatics. He would like to focus his research on infectious disease intelligence and forecasting, including tipping points and early warning signals, and how these interact with and inform policies for managing endemic infectious diseases in low-resource settings.

Kane Moser joins us after conducting research at both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, where they conducted a research project examining spatial and temporal differences in zooplankton migration behavior and subsequent trophic changes in a set of three glacially-formed lakes. Their current research focus is emerging fungal pathogens and Ebolaviruses, as well as spillover prediction and mapping.

JP Schmidt comes to the lab as an Assistant Research Scientist. He received his PhD in Ecology from the University of Georgia. His research interests include population ecology, invasive plants, and disease ecology. JP is currently focused on research that will develop a Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) spatial interaction model. The goal of this research is to construct, test and deliver a Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) spatial interaction model to estimate, predict, and forecast how a JEV outbreak in the United States may spatiotemporally spread, and how a JEV outbreak can be controlled.

Welcome Abdul, Nicholas, Kane, and JP!