The research group of Dr. Allison Shaw at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities uses mathematical and computational models to answer questions about animal movement. Dr. Shaw's group is currently recruiting one or more undergraduate students to work on a research project during summer 2019, as part of an NSF-funded grant in collaboration with Drs. Marlene Zuk, Meggan Craft (both University of Minnesota-Twin Cities), and Sandra Binning (University of Montreal).
Logistics
This is a paid position at full time (40hrs/week) for approximately 10-12 weeks, running from mid-May to mid-August (although the specific start/end dates are flexible).
Qualifications
No previous research experience is required, but priority will be given to students who have had coursework in differential equations and some experience programming (in any language).
To Apply
Send an email with (1) a copy of your CV, (2) a brief (up to 1 page) essay of what interests you about this work (identifying which, if any, of the above project ideas is of most interest to you) and a description of any past research experience. Review of applications will begin mid-February 2019 and continue until the position is filled.
Position Details
Position details:The project is to build a mathematical model to study the interaction between migrating animals and their parasites and pathogens. In particular our goal is to understand when migration is expected to evolve and how migration affects infection prevalence in the host population. This will entail building a mathematical model using analytic (pencil and paper) and/or computer simulation approaches.
The specific project will be selected from one of the following topics:
(1) IMMUNITY. For some types of parasites and pathogens, the same individual can become infected more than once in its lifetime whereas in other cases individuals acquire immunity – once they become infected they can never become infected by the same pathogen again. Previous modeling work in our lab has used a Susceptible-Infected (SI) or SIS framework, assuming organisms remain infected or go back to being susceptible after infection. We could modify this model to account for immunity (using an SIR model with a ‘resistant’ or immune class instead of an SIS model) and ask: how does allowing for immunity change our expectation of when migration should evolve?
(2) INFECTION INTENSITY. For some types of parasites and pathogens any infection is costly, whereas in other cases more severe infections (i.e. having more parasites) leads to greater cost. Previous modeling work in our lab has assumed that all infected individuals are equivalent, assuming that infection severity does not matter. We could modify this model to account for infection severity, i.e. that a host infected with more parasites (e.g. helminth worms, ticks) will experience a higher cost of infection than those with only a few parasites. Then we could ask, how does accounting for infection ‘intensity’ change our expectation of when migration should evolve?
(3) VECTOR-BORNE PARASITES. Some types of parasites and pathogens are transmitted directly from other infected individuals (e.g. colds in humans) while others are transmitted by a ‘vector’ species (such as mosquitos which can spread malaria between humans). This second type of transmission is called ‘vector-borne transmission’. Previous modeling work in our lab has modeled vector-borne transmission implicitly by assuming that infection risk increases with the frequency of infected hosts in a population. We could modify this model to account for the vector population explicitly, adding equations to describe the number of infected and noninfected vectors and explicitly modeling how they interact with the host population. Then we could ask, how does accounting explicitly for the vector population change our expectation of when migration should evolve?
The specific project will be selected from one of the following topics:
(1) IMMUNITY. For some types of parasites and pathogens, the same individual can become infected more than once in its lifetime whereas in other cases individuals acquire immunity – once they become infected they can never become infected by the same pathogen again. Previous modeling work in our lab has used a Susceptible-Infected (SI) or SIS framework, assuming organisms remain infected or go back to being susceptible after infection. We could modify this model to account for immunity (using an SIR model with a ‘resistant’ or immune class instead of an SIS model) and ask: how does allowing for immunity change our expectation of when migration should evolve?
(2) INFECTION INTENSITY. For some types of parasites and pathogens any infection is costly, whereas in other cases more severe infections (i.e. having more parasites) leads to greater cost. Previous modeling work in our lab has assumed that all infected individuals are equivalent, assuming that infection severity does not matter. We could modify this model to account for infection severity, i.e. that a host infected with more parasites (e.g. helminth worms, ticks) will experience a higher cost of infection than those with only a few parasites. Then we could ask, how does accounting for infection ‘intensity’ change our expectation of when migration should evolve?
(3) VECTOR-BORNE PARASITES. Some types of parasites and pathogens are transmitted directly from other infected individuals (e.g. colds in humans) while others are transmitted by a ‘vector’ species (such as mosquitos which can spread malaria between humans). This second type of transmission is called ‘vector-borne transmission’. Previous modeling work in our lab has modeled vector-borne transmission implicitly by assuming that infection risk increases with the frequency of infected hosts in a population. We could modify this model to account for the vector population explicitly, adding equations to describe the number of infected and noninfected vectors and explicitly modeling how they interact with the host population. Then we could ask, how does accounting explicitly for the vector population change our expectation of when migration should evolve?