news

The last major product of the RCN is now out. A theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Series B was was released digitally in September and is out in print this month. The issue collects 15 papers on the theme of disease macroecology from researchers both within and outside our network. You can find the issue online here: Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe The issue was edited by RCN members Patrick R…

The RCN is holding a symposium at Duke University this fall at Duke University.  The first day of the symposium, September 26th, is free and open to the public.  You can read more about the symposium and register for it at the link provided here at the symposium website. 

Andrew Park and Shan Huang have helped organize a symposium at the 2018 Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Montpellier, France.  Several RCN participants will be presenting research at the meeting in August.  You can read more about the meeting here.

Graduate student RCN participant Ania Majewska has completed two new you tube videos and started a channel for the RCN. One video discusses how globalization has led to the spread of new diseases using chikunguyna as an example (you can see it here). The other video introduces the concept of macroecology and what it can teach us about infectious disease dynamics (you can see it here). Keep an eye on our channel for more videos!

During the Summer of 2017, two new Research Assistants are going to be joining the RCN. Ania Majewska is going to develop a series of short films focused on topics in disease macroecology. John Vinson is going to be developing a series of tutorials on how to implement common macroecological methods in the R statistical programming environment. Look for these products in the “Resources” section of the website as they become available.

The sixth biannual meeting of the RCN was held May 5 through May 7.  The RCN welcomed two new participants.  Ignacio Morales-Castilla is heading up a project that combines predictive niche modelling of host range shifts under climate change with models of parasite sharing to predict novel future patterns of host sympatry and disease transmission events.  Elizabeth Daut is heading up a study that leverages data from numerous sources to identify which of the pets most commonly imported into the US…

The new deadline for these awards is September 11. More information available here.

The Macroecology of Infectious Disease RCN will be hosting an organized oral session, with some great talks. Also, if you’re inclined, check out the newly formed Disease Ecology Section of ESA. They will be having a mixer at ESA. Their webmaster is also pretty legit.

The fourth meeting of the RCN will take place in Athens GA just before the 13th annual Ecology and Evolution of Infectious disease conference, also here in Athens. We will be meeting for full days on May 24th and May 25th, with a half day meeting on May 26.

The third biannual meeting of the “Macroecology of Infectious Disease RCN” will take place from Monday  November 3 through Wednesday November 5 in Athens, Georgia. It will consist of two full days and one half day of sessions.