In this Award from the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows Program) Dr. Carrie A. Manore from Tulane University will study the impact of changes in the environment upon the risks for emerging infectious diseases, in particular zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. This award has support from: the Directorate for Computer & Information Science and Engineering, the Division of Mathematical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the Office of International and Integrative Activities, and the Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
The proposed work will create a hierarchy of multi-scale, integrative models incorporating nonlinear systems of differential equations, ecological networks, and agent-based models to provide a framework for understanding and mitigating risk of emerging infectious diseases in a spatially heterogeneous environment. In particular, the research will focus on a few emerging or potentially emerging infectious diseases in the United States, including West Nile virus, dengue, Rift Valley fever, hantavirus and chikungunya, with an emphasis on how human mobility, climate, and disturbance of the environment modify risk.
The aim of modeling studies like that proposed in work is to inform how emerging disease risk can be mitigated by sustainable management of the environment, including better planning of urban and agricultural expansion, more effective and efficient public health strategies such as use of new technology, increased surveillance and data sharing, and informed choices about human manipulation of the environment and the importance of biodiversity. The ultimate aim of work like this is to better inform policy makers about these new and emerging risks.
Dr. Manore will be working with collaborators J. "Mac" Hyman of Tulane University and Christopher Mores, Department of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University, and additional scientists at Pennsylvania State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Manore will also be mentoring graduate and undergraduate students in this project, including students from underrepresented groups.
This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.
