NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Macdonald Andrew J, Goleta CA

Investigators

Abstract

Postdoctoral Fellow: Andrew John MacDonald Proposal Number: 1611767 This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Andrew J. MacDonald is "Land use change and deforestation: A cause and consequence of vector-borne disease risk in the Amazon Basin." The host institution for this fellowship is Stanford University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Erin Mordecai. The goal of this project is to understand the bi-directional relationship between vector-borne disease and land use change, using malaria and deforestation in the Amazon as a model system. Improved understanding of these relationships is critically important to conservation, economic development and human health. Land use change is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing society. As natural lands are cleared by humans, species reliant on the cleared habitat are lost while other species replace them. There is substantial evidence that arthropod vectors - such as mosquitoes and ticks - and the pathogens they transmit, often benefit from land use change. Yet, studies attempting to link land use change directly to human disease have yielded ambiguous results, often drawing contradictory conclusions. One important source of this ambiguity may be the existence of bi-directional feedbacks between land use change and disease that, if overlooked, can result in unreliable and misleading results. The Fellow is using robust statistical techniques widely applied in empirical economics, and high-resolution environmental and epidemiological data, to develop an understanding of the relationships between land use change and malaria. In so doing, he is helping to develop a general framework to address feedbacks between land use change and infectious disease, thereby contributing greatly to the burgeoning field of disease ecology. The Fellow is receiving training in advanced statistical and computational modeling, incorporating techniques from econometrics and epidemiology. In addition, the Fellow's research results are being used to develop interactive educational tools and curricula in collaboration with high school teachers from underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. These teachers are working to implement innovative teaching tools and strategies in their own classrooms to engage underrepresented students in STEM fields, using the Fellow's project results. The Fellow is also mentoring several high school and middle school students through programs aimed at engaging low income and first generation students in science. Finally, the Fellow is using the research results to inform conservation policy in Brazil to reduce malaria burden.