My laboratory is housed in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. Our research has historically emphasized parasite ecology and systematics of all classes of vertebrate hosts as well as invertebrate groups. Areas of general interest have been host/parasite population dynamics, utilization of trophic structures by helminthic parasites, biodiversity, systematics, comparative morphology, experimental life cycle determinations and descriptions, epidemiology and genetics. My laboratory has provided opportunities for many students to use multidisciplinary approaches to answer critical questions in parasite systems.
We maintain an active national and international collaborative program including research projects in China, Ukraine, India, Iraq, Japan, Egypt, South America, France and USA. This includes multiple zoological parks worldwide (e.g. Lincoln Park Zoo, Parc Zoologique de Montpellier, Philadelphia Zoo, Audubon Zoo, and Caldwell Zoo). Within Texas A&M, we maintain research collaborations with the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center, Department of Pathobiology, Department of Entomology, Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collection, and NSF Biosystematics and Biodiversity Center.
The lab has hosted a number of studies concerning the parasites of endangered, threatened and uncommon hosts (e.g. pelicans, sea turtles, dolphins, Indonesian freshwater turtles). It also houses an extensive working parasite research collection which serves as a basis for collaboration with other parasite collections (e.g. H.M. Manter Laboratory, Natural History Museum of London, and Smithsonian Natural History Museum). The lab has produced in excess of 100 publications (over 40 in the last 10 years), often including graduate and/or undergraduate students as authors.