Animal Behavior & Infectious Disease Symposium, 2026

Nick Keiser, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Keiser Lab studies infectious disease ecology through the lens of animal behavior. The lab is interested in the relationship between individual and social determinants of disease and focus mostly on invertebrate animals (e.g., spiders, ticks, flies, snails) and their associated parasites. Keiser operates the Spider Parasite Digital Research, or SPDR, Collection, which focuses on the parasites and parasitoids of spiders.

Miguel Acavedo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. He is a member of the editorial board of "Methods in Ecology and Evolution" and a data papers editor for "Ecology." Acavedo often collaborates with a wide variety of researchers, including mathematicians, statisticians, engineers, computer scientists, geographers, epidemiologists and social scientists. He uses innovative and evidence-based approaches to teach quantitative topics to non-math majors.

Emily Durkin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Tampa. She researches the ecology and evolution of parasitic relationships and how parasitic lifestyles evolved from once free-living ancestors. She is particularly interested in the behavior of parasites, having studied its heritability and how variation in this key trait is generated and maintained. I address these research questions primarily with the facultatively parasitic mite: Macrocheles muscaedomesticae and their fruit fly hosts.

Norman L. Beatty, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at the UF Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine. Beatty has been studying kissing bugs, the insect vector responsible for transmitting the parasite that causes Chagas disease, in humans and other mammals since 2015. He is currently researching the prevalence of Chagas disease in Florida, as well as throughout the United States. His research has been presented at several conferences, including both the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual scientific meetings. Beatty has a clinic dedicated to Chagas disease which offers advanced testing and management.

Javi Rudolph, Ph.D., a computational literacy librarian at UF Libraries, builds computational capacity through tool development and non-extractive collaborations, particularly across Latin America, empowering local researchers to advance One Health priorities. Her work sits at the intersection of computational ecology, community ecology, data science and decision support. She investigates how animal movement, infectious disease dynamics and environmental change interact to shape ecosystems and resource management outcomes. By developing simulation-based and scenario forecasting models, Rudolph supports data-informed decision-making in both ecological and public health contexts. Her work advances research and training but also fosters a culture of computational confidence and collaboration that drives innovative, real-world solutions to environmental and societal challenges.

Christ Dutton, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the UF Department of Biology. His lab explores how environmental and animal microbiomes shape ecosystems and alter health. Every initiative from the lab aims to make research and education more effective and inclusive, empowering students, scientists and the broader public to engage with ecology and protect natural resources. He earned his Ph.D. in 2019 from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, a Master’s of Environmental Studies from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a Bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance, music, and criminal justice from the prestigious School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington.

Heather Walden, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research interests focus on parasitic disease, diagnosis and classical parasite biology. She has collaborated on several research projects throughout the United States, Mexico, Ecuador and The Galapagos Islands, Zambia and Senegal. She regularly works with zoonotic and non-zoonotic parasites of exotic and domestic hosts, as her training focuses on classical and molecular parasitology, including diagnostic procedures for a diversified parasite assemblage.