The Dynamics & Evolution of Emerging Pathogens: Insights from Californian Salt Marshes, House Finches & Zika Virus

Professor Dobson will provide quantitative estimates of levels of pathogen diversity in natural communities, illustrating the relative insignificance of ‘discovering’ new viruses, and will describe the factors that determine successful emergence and subsequent evolution in a well-studied avian pathogen. He'll conclude with an analysis of the current and future dynamics of Zika virus and its response to potential control methods.

Andrew Dobson, DPhil, has been at the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton for 25 years; he is also external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and A.D White Visiting Professor at Cornell University. His work focuses on the population dynamics of parasites and pathogens in Serengeti, Yellowstone, the coast of California, the Canadian Arctic, and the backyards of New England. Prof. Dobson is an elected Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America, and has over 200 published papers and books.