David Vasquez Jr.

I am a 5th year Ecology Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia in the NSF-NRT Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales program. I am advised by Dr. Andrew Park.

 

I received my B.S. in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2015 where I focused on examining the links between social dominance and disease transmission in house finches in Dr. Dana Hawley's Lab.

 

After graduation, I participated in a NIH Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program at the University of Missouri where I analyzed the genetic variability of nematode brainworms collected from infected white-tailed deer in the Midwest in Dr. Lori Eggert's Lab. 

 

To date, I have conducted research on a variety of different animals and the parasites and pathogens that they are commonly infected with. This has included snails, aquatic insect larvae, house finches, bess beetles, African buffalo, bighorn sheep, and white-tailed deer.

 

For my dissertation research, I am investigating how ecological and environmental conditions can affect the geographic distribution and abundance of parasites in white-tailed deer. My work will span several scales and utilize methods in statistical modeling.