Peter Hudson, PhD is the Willaman Professor of Biology and the Director of
, where he focuses on the ecology of wildlife diseases, including zoonoses. His group uses a mixture of fieldwork, laboratory studies and mathematical modeling to explore disease dynamics in three main study areas.
Epidemiology and population dynamics
- How disease flows through wild animal populations
- Mechanisms that lead to disease persistence within populations
- The consequences of individual infections on host population dynamics. For instance, how the sub-lethal effects of infection destabilize host population dynamics by influencing the fecundity of individuals.
Heterogeneities
- Identifying variation in transmission between infected individuals — and the role of "superspreaders" in disease dynamics.
Parasite interactions
- How infection by one disease agent alters host susceptibility to other parasites and pathogens.
- The consequences of these interactions for host population dynamics.
Much of Peter's work has implications for the control of wildlife diseases, and of emerging zoonotic disease.