Gregory Dwyer
University of Chicago, IL·Ecology & Evolution
Diseases do not spread evenly across a landscape. When hosts move slowly, local hot spots of infection can appear.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Mathematics & Statistics
Plant Science & Agriculture
- Topics
disease ecology
host-pathogen interactions
Douglas-fir tussock moth
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Use Bayesian model selection, combining priors from experiments with large-scale spatial field data, to test which spatial disease models best explain virus epidemics in the Douglas-fir tussock moth.
- Simplify the best-fitting tussock moth-virus models into general analytic theory that links host-pathogen biology to the spatial spread of disease and the formation of disease hot spots.
- Advance Weak form Scientific Machine Learning (WSciML) methods so they can discover equations and estimate parameters from sparse, noisy host-pathogen data in seconds to minutes rather than months.
- Apply WSciML to tussock moth and spongy moth virus data to test how variation among hosts and pathogens drives the spread of insect pathogens used to control forest pests.
More about the research
Insect viruses that kill forest pests are a clear natural example. The Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata, and the spongy moth strip the leaves from North American forests. This damage would be far worse without virus epidemics that wipe out moth populations. The research combines mathematical models with field and experimental data. It seeks to predict when and where these viruses will control pests, and to build a general theory of how disease spreads through space.
Why it matters
Models that predict when natural virus epidemics will collapse pest outbreaks could help forest managers. For example, the US Forest Service could use them to decide when spraying artificial insecticides is unnecessary. That could save money and protect North American forests from defoliating moths. The general theory of spatial disease spread could also inform how disease hot spots form in other host species.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christopher Gough
Virginia Commonwealth University, VA·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether trade-offs exist between different dimensions of carbon-cycling stability, such as resistance and recovery, across 0–85% defoliation levels in the FoRTE field experiment in Michigan.
Amanda De La Torre
Northern Arizona University, AZ·Plant Science & Agriculture·Early-career
Test whether hybrids between coastal and interior Douglas fir varieties show greater drought tolerance and growth than their parents, using physiological studies of pure varieties, F1, F2 and advanced-generation hybrids.
Jalene LaMontagne
University of Missouri-St Louis, MO·Ecology & Evolution
Test how CO2, temperature, water availability, nitrogen deposition and wildfire interact to affect seed quantity, mass, chemistry and germination in five boreal conifers, including black spruce and jack pine.
The school
University of Chicago: 39 labs on PI Pages, $681M a year on research, 457 research doctorates a year.
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