Current Lab Members
Dr. Graziella V. DiRenzo
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Postdocs
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Riley Mummah
Postdoctoral researcher I am broadly interested in the intersection of statistical, mathematical, genetic, epidemiological, and ecological methodologies and theories in infectious disease. My current research focuses on improving management and surveillance decisions of white nose syndrome by accounting for imperfect detection and misclassification error.
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My main research interests are rooted in disease ecology, microbial ecology and wildlife conservation. I'm particularly interested in developing effective wildlife management and conservation strategies to address emerging disease threats. My current project focuses on using structured decision making and developing quantitative tools to improve disease management decisions for the emerging amphibian pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal).
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Jennifer Rogers
she | her Postdoctoral researcher jenrogers@umass.edu I am an ecologist who studies aquatic habitats including rocky intertidal, coastal salt marsh, and streams. I work on building tools that help resource managers make decisions about conservation priorities, often by building models that estimate species, broader communities, and habitat types most at risk in our changing world. My current project is in partnership with northeastern state wildlife agencies. We will be mapping biodiversity in freshwater habitats and modeling the impacts of climate change using locally downscaled climate projections. This will help states identify critical streams and riparian land for conservation and restoration.
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I am quantitative ecologist with a broad interest on the relationship between vertebrates life-history and their environment. I work on a broad range of species group, and in the past, I have worked on small mammal communities in Scandinavia to Southern elephant seals in the Southern Ocean. My current project is related to emerging infectious diseases and transmission risks. I will be putting together a risk assessment of the potential pathways of human-to-deer SARS-CoV-2 spillover events, and I will be working on deer-to-human (or other wildlife) spillback events. I will be exploring the probability that deer will became a new reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 and the potential implications in a One Health framework.
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My research interests include forest dynamics, invasive species, conservation, and science education. I am most interested in research that is directly applicable to land managers and/or educators. My current research focuses on assessing wild cervid stakeholders’ existing perceptions and behaviors related to chronic wasting disease (CWD). I am also developing a risk assessment focused on the introduction, establishment, and spread of CWD in Massachusetts, as well as communication strategy based on perceptions, behaviors, and a state-wide risk assessment.
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I am interested in integrating social science, disease ecology, and decision science methods to provide decision support for managing wildlife diseases, invasive species, and complex natural resource challenges across a variety of systems. I'm working right now to provide decision support for natural resource management agencies battling chronic wasting disease in free-ranging deer and elk populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and across the country.
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Graduate students
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Andrew Gordon
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Desireé Smith
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Evan Grimes
he | him PhD student esgrimes@umass.edu www.msherps.com (Mississippi herp atlas and outreach page) www.flickr.com/evangrimes (nature photography) My project is the development of a multifaceted analysis of the relationship between prescribed fire and the Eastern Box Turtle in its northeastern ranges. I hope to include geospatial, biotic and abiotic environmental conditions, and ecology and behavior of the turtles in the study. My interests are broadly focused in herpetological conservation and organismal biology, including phylogeography, ecology, and morphology. I also really enjoy birding and identifying invertebrate and plant species.
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My research interests include impacts from climate change, wildlife conservation, and spatial modeling. I am most interested in applied science, and projects that allow for science communication between communities, researchers, scientists, and managers.
My Current research will focus on using NABat Program Data to understand bats with white nose syndrome, science communication, and spatial modeling! |
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My main research interest is wildlife conservation with a focus on disease, genetics, and emerging/re-emerging pathogens. I am enthusiastic about how disease and genetics have effects on our wildlife population.
For my research, I will be using structured decision-making and matrix population models to analyze if the introduction of disease and detrimental alleles from confiscated turtles in the northeastern region of the United States affects their populations. |
Undergraduates
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My name is Rachel Bisson, and I am a senior undergraduate student majoring in Psychology on the Neuroscience Track and Biology. I am currently working with the DiRenzo Lab on a thesis for the Commonwealth Honors College regarding human dimensions of black bear management in Massachusetts. My research interests include human attitudes toward wildlife, zoonotic disease, and animal behavior.
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Past Lab Members
None yet
