- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Carlson, to speak on avian (bird) malaria, was one of 20 presenters--five from each specialty section--selected by ESA officials to deliver a Premier Presentation. Her specialty section is Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology. A two to three-minute video featuring her and her work will be posted online following her presentation.
Carlson will discuss the work she completed at UC Davis under the tutelage of her major professor, medical entomologist Anthony Cornel, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty who is headquartered at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Parlier. While at UC Davis, Carlson was based in the lab of William Reisen, then a graduate student advisor with the Department of Entomology and Nematology and director of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine. Reisen, now retired, also served on her dissertation committee.
“I will present the avian malaria disease risk predictions for the endemic avian populations on Socorro Island, Mexico, and in the subarctic region of Alaska,” she said. “Using California-based vector competence studies as a guideline, I will discuss how vectors are structuring Plasmodium-host relationships by serving as both a compatibility filter and as an encounter filter. These are extremely important entomological considerations that must be included in a wildlife conservation and management plan, failure to neglect this component in disease risk assessments could result in the collapse of a fragile endemic avian population.”
While at UC Davis, Carlson received a number of honors, including the William Hazeltine Memorial Research Fellowship Awards for four years, 2011 to 2014; the Henry A. Jastro Shields Research Award, 2012 to 2014; and the UC Davis McBeth Memorial Scholarship, 2011 to 2012.
Her current goals are four-fold:
1. To continue conducting research in the field of human and animal disease.
2. To apply her knowledge in vector-borne diseases to help improve human, animal and ecosystem health.
3. To participate in collaborative research on naturally occurring human and animal disease,
4. To learn new molecular techniques that would aid in the identification of re-emerging and novel pathogens.
Carlson received her bachelor of science degree in zoology in 2006 from Colorado, State University and her master's degree in biology in 2008 from San Francisco State University.