Fellows Selected for New Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats
Research Corporation for Science Advancement will bring together a multidisciplinary group of early-career researchers to address the global threat to human health from animal-borne infectious diseases as part of its new Scialog initiative, Mitigating Zoonotic Threats.
The first meeting of the three-year initiative, sponsored by RCSA and U.S. Department of Agriculture – including the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS,) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) – will be held Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2021, in Tucson, Arizona.
“A deeper understanding of the interactions between animals, people, pathogens and their environments could expand our ability to rapidly detect emerging pathogens and to quickly develop and deploy new countermeasures,” said RCSA Program Director Andrew Feig.
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format brings together communities of early-career scientists from multiple disciplines and institutions across the U.S. and Canada, and this initiative includes both academic and USDA scientists with the vision of spurring stronger interactions between these groups. Guided by a group of senior Facilitators, participants will discuss challenges and gaps in current knowledge, build community around visionary goals, and form teams to propose cutting-edge, collaborative research projects. Those considered to have the potential for high-impact results will be selected to receive seed funding.
Participation in Scialog is by invitation and is inclusive of researchers from groups underrepresented in science.
Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats Fellows for 2021 are:
Salvador Almagro-Moreno, Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida
Cheryl Andam, Biological Sciences, University at Albany, SUNY
Tavis Anderson, Virus and Prion Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture
Angela Arenas, Veterinary Pathobiology, Texas A&M University, College Station
Justin Bahl, Department of Infectious Disease, University of Georgia
Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, Cooperative Wildlife Research Lab, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Daniel Becker, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma
Paola Boggiatto, Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture
Yanling Chang, Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, Texas A&M University, College Station
Lauren Charles, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University
Nicole Eikmeier, Department of Computer Science, Grinnell College
Maria Fernandez, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University
Hannah Frank, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University
Amy Hartman, Center for Vaccine Research, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Crystal Hepp, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University
Claudia Herrera, Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University School of Public Health
Matthew Hopken, Rabies Research Project, United States Department of Agriculture
Diego Huet, Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Georgia
Silvie Huijben, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University - Tempe Campus
Joyce Jose, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University
Kristin Koutmou, Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan
Jason Ladner, Department of Biology, Northern Arizona University
Charles Lewis, Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, Iowa State University
Efrem Lim, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University - Tempe Campus
Hongfu Liu, Department of Computer Science, Brandeis University
Jenny Maloney, ARS, BARC, Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Lab, United States Department of Agriculture
Kezia Manlove, Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center, Utah State University
Bethany McGregor, Arthropod Borne Animal Diseases Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture
Gisselle Medina, USDA/ARS National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)/ Plum Island Animal Disease Center
Angad Mehta, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Craig Miller, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Oklahoma State University – Stillwater
Dana Mitzel, ABADRU, United States Department of Agriculture
Adela Oliva Chavez, Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station
Sen Pei, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Kim Pepin, National Wildlife Research Center
Alex Perkins, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame
Erik Procko, Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Brenda Rubenstein, Department of Chemistry, Brown University
Audrey Ruple, Department of Public Health, Purdue University
Liliana Salvador, Infectious Diseases & Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Georgia
Danae Schulz, Department of Biology, Harvey Mudd College
Prashant Singh, Nutrition & Integrative Physiology, Florida State University
Rebecca Smith, Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Avery Strait, Veterinary Services, United States Department of Agriculture
Troy Sutton, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
Laurene Tetard, Department of Physics/Nanoscience Technology Center, University of Central Florida
Christoph Thaiss, Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania
Gonzalo Vazquez Prokopec, Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory University
Heather Walden, Comparative, Diagnostic and Population Medicine, University of Florida
Mark Wilber, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
William Witola, Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Xiaohu Xia, Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida
Ahmet Ali Yanik, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Sara Zimmer, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Mitigating Zoonotic Threats Fellows and Facilitators for 2021
