People

Principal Investigator

C. Jessica Metcalf

PicFromPAWAssociate Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Public Affairs
cmetcalf@princeton.edu

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.

Curriculum Vitae

Post-doctoral Researchers

Benjamin Rice

Postdoctoral fellow
b.rice@princeton.edu

Benny is a postdoctoral fellow in the Metcalf lab interested in the evolution and ecology of parasites in human and wildlife hosts – especially in how genetic and mass serology approaches could be used to better understand pathogen dynamics in Madagascar. Benny is joining the Metcalf lab in the summer of 2019 after finishing his PhD in the OEB department at Harvard University (a PhD that focused on malaria in rural, remote communities in Madagascar).

Graduate Students

Malavika Rajeev

P1015183Graduate fellow
mrajeev@princeton.edu

Malavika received a dual BS/MS in Ecology at the University of Georgia in 2013. Her MS thesis focused on examining patterns of seroprevalence of zoonotic diseases in livestock across two ranching systems in Laikipia, Kenya. She is interested in studying the ecology of disease interventions with a focus on determining optimal strategies to control canine rabies in endemic settings.

Ian Miller

Graduate fellow
ifmiller@princeton.edu

Ian is broadly interested in the evolutionary and ecological processes that shape host-pathogen interactions. His aim is to develop theoretical models that incorporate the complexity and heterogeneity found in natural systems, to test the predictions of these models empirically, and to apply his findings to problems related to public health. Big questions that currently interest him include: How does host heterogeneity affect epidemic processes and the evolution of virulence? What are the patterns of variation in the efficacy of the immune system within and between populations? What trade-offs or biotic interactions limit virulence?

Lab Alumni

Amy Winter

Amy

Amy is a former postdoctoral fellow in the Metcalf lab. Her research interests lie at the intersection of environment, human demography, infectious disease epidemiology, and health policy. Specifically, her dissertation explored rubella and measles disease dynamics, the effects of vaccine control programs, and potential novel data sources for informing key knowledge gaps. As a postdoc in the Metcalf lab she examined the influence that the environment (e.g., climate change) may have on population dynamics and behavior (e.g., migration patterns), and in turn how changes in population dynamics and behavior influence infectious disease dynamics.

Saki Takahashi

Saki

Saki was a former graduate fellow in the Metcalf lab. She is broadly interested in clarifying the spatial distribution as well as the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of viral infections and their control measures across epidemiological scales. She draws from relevant public health issues including spatial heterogeneity in susceptibility to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, and the emerging threat of antigenically diverse enteroviruses in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. 

Joaquín Prada

JoaquinJoaquín is a former postdoctoral fellow in the Metcalf lab and now holds a position at the University of Warwick.  He is a mathematical modeller interested in host-parasite interactions and modelling dynamic systems. Most recently his focus has been on improving measles control strategies and progress towards its elimination using predictive epidemiological models, as well as using serological data to improve measles incidence inference.

Nkengafak Villyen Motaze

Collaborator
nmotaze@princeton.edu

Villyen is a medical epidemiologist who works on infectious diseases, child health, and reproductive health. Following training as a medical doctor at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Cameroon, he worked for four years in the North West Region of Cameroon as a general practitioner before deciding to pursue a career in medical research. Villyen is currently pursuing a PhD at Stellenbosch University in epidemiology within the Department of Global Health and collaborates closely with the Metcalf lab.

Micaela Martinez-Bakker

website_picture_Mar2015

mem2352@cumc.columbia.edu

Micaela is a former postdoctoral fellow in the Metcalf Lab. She is now an assistant professor at Columbia University. As an infectious disease ecologist her primary interest is the seasonality of infectious diseases, although she is broadly interested in various aspects of disease and population ecology. 

Ayesha Mahmud

AyeshaAyesha is a former graduate student in the Metcalf lab. Currently she is a fellow at Harvard University with the Planetary Health Alliance. She is broadly interested in using historical datasets and demographic and epidemiological models to understand the interplay between human demography and infectious disease dynamics.

Keitly Mensah

img_4055Research Associate
kmensah@princeton.edu

Keitly is a public health physician trained in France with a strong interest in infectious disease. She oriented her training in that direction during various rotations at the WHO, infectious disease control units and research units focused on infectious disease. One of her interests is the impact of healthcare services organization on infectious disease prevention and more specifically on vaccination, particularly in low and middle income countries. Her current research focuses on the impact of seasonality on measles vaccination in Madagascar.

Benjamin Dalziel

benjamin.dalziel@oregonstate.edu

Ben is a former Postdoctoral Fellow in the Metcalf lab and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University.

Brooke Bozick

Brooke is a disease ecologist that is broadly interested in the evolution and spatial spread of pathogens. Her work aims to connect the evolutionary dynamics of infectious disease with the ecological processes that generate them through the characterization of underlying spatial genetic patterns. Her dissertation work used influenza A as a model system to examine how human mobility affects pathogen population structure and epidemic dynamics. As a postdoc in the Metcalf lab, she is investigating the global and regional spread of rubella virus to identify sources and sinks of disease transmission. Brooke received her B.S. in biology from Pennsylvania State University (2007) and her Ph.D. from Emory University (2016).