EPI Seminar Series

Kirsten Stelinski, Ph.D., is the director of the UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research & Education Center Center. Her research program focuses on the biology and microbial ecology of insect vectors of plant diseases. Currently, she is investigating transmission of the Huanglongbing (HLB) pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las) by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri, to further the development of successful ACP management programs.

Ana Bento, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Cornell University. Bento’s transdisciplinary research leverages mathematical and computational modeling, machine learning, and data science to identify the eco-evolutionary, demographic, and environmental drivers of pathogen (re) emergence, persistence, and spread in humans and other animals. Her lab seeks to understand the dynamics of biological populations and epidemics, to advance the understanding of fundamental processes in ecology and evolution, focusing on how to bring experimental and observational data together with mathematical theory.

Jennifer McQuiston, D.V.M., is the deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. McQuiston often serves in leadership roles for CDC emergency responses, including deploying to Sierra Leone as part of the 2014 West Africa response, serving at deputy incident manager in 2015 for the CDC’s zika response, serving as principal deputy incident manager in 2020 during the CDC’s COVID response, and leading as incident manager in 2022 during the CDC’s response to the 2022 global mpox outbreak.

Chris Woods, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed articles and has a particular interest in development of medical microbiology capacity in the developing world and the epidemiology of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. His research focuses on the development of novel diagnostic approaches to infectious disease and the potential for interspecies transmission of pathogens.

Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is a specialist in medical microbiology, tropical medicine, and infectious diseases. He is a skilled pathologist with strong research and professional interests in molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases. His main research interests are focused on the eco-epidemiological and pathological aspects of arthropod-borne viruses/protozoa and trypanosomatid parasitic infections.

Xavier Berthet, Ph.D., is the director of biomedical research at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. In this role, he contributes to the scientific excellence of IPD’s R&D’s department and conducts pioneering research at the interface of bioinformatics, mathematics, and abstract algebra.