We had a great time last week when Dr Nathan Nieto from Northern Arizona University visited the department at Tech. Kendra invited him as we plan to work with him on the bat ectoparasite collection she made during her research on the response of cave bats to disturbance in the Philippines.

Nate’s research focuses on the emergence of infectious diseases from (primarily) wildlife reservoirs, and he gave a super talk that illustrates integrative approaches (from vertebrate reservoir communities to the molecular phylogeny of the pathogens) entitled “Sylvatic maintenance of endemic disease: pathogen evolution through a host community filter”.