A. Marm Kilpatrick

Senior Research Scientist, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, based at Wildlife Trust

Marm Kilpatrick received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the impacts of avian malaria on the demography of native Hawaiian birds and management strategies for facilitating the evolution of resistance to malaria.

His research approach is to combine models and fieldwork to examine questions in disease ecology, population regulation and conservation biology.

Current projects include:

• determining the drivers of spatial and temporal variation in West Nile virus transmission;
• determining the impact of disease on animal populations, and ways to conserve species threatened by disease;
• developing models for the risk of transmission of West Nile virus to humans, and Brucella abortus from bison to cattle in Yellowstone National Park;
• risk assessments for the introduction of pathogens to new areas, including avian influenza and West Nile virus.

Some of this work has resulted in publications in Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PLoS Biology, Ecology, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Conservation, Conservation Biology, Ecohealth, Auk, and Evolutionary Ecology Research. His work has been the focus of numerous articles in the press including television (ABC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), radio (NPR, CNN Radio, WAMU in Washington DC), and major daily newspapers (e.g. The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times).