Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Public Affairs
Jessica Metcalf is a demographer with broad interests in evolutionary ecology, infectious disease dynamics and public policy. She completed her PhD at Imperial College on the evolutionary demography of monocarpic perennials. Her post-doctoral research was conducted at various institutions. She studied the evolution of senescence at the Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research, the inference of tree demographic parameters at Duke University, and infectious disease dynamics at Pennsylvania State University and Princeton University.
Metcalf’s teaching focuses on a course titled Epidemiology: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective. Her course aims to communicate both an understanding of the core principles of epidemiology (ranging from classical study designs to core analytical techniques) and a broader perspective into the fundamental drivers of health outcomes (ranging from ecological drivers of the spread of infectious disease to the evolutionary determinants of profiles of late age mortality).