Dr. Barbara A. Han
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Odum School of Ecology
140 E. Green St., University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
e-mail: han@uga.edu
phone: (706) 542-3971
I am broadly interested in ecological and evolutionary relationships between organisms and their susceptibility to infection. My dissertation work focused on how an emerging fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, influences amphibian host behaviors and community interactions. This work was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew R. Blaustein at Oregon State University. Currently I am working on an NSF-funded project at the University of Georgia examining how patterns of allometric scaling in behaviors of mammalian hosts affect their infection susceptibiliy, disease dynamics, and extinction risk. This work takes advantage of the Global Mammal Parasite Database and the PanTheria Database, and is in collaboration with Drs. Sonia Altizer, Anna Jolles, Charlie Nunn, Hamish McCallum, and John Gittleman.
I have also been involved in research examining the distribution of the Batrachochytrium pathogen in the Venezuelan Andes with Drs. Margarita Lampo, Dinora Sanchez, and several additional scientists at the Centro de Ecologia at IVIC. Another continuing project focuses on the role of ultraviolet-B radiation on the behavioral ecology of poison-dart frogs in lowland tropical rainforests of Costa Rica. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Lee Kats at Pepperdine University.
