Becker studies how pathogens are transmitted within wildlife populations, methods to predict risks of pathogen spillover from wild bats and birds to people, and how environmental change affects infectious disease dynamics.
Becker’s current research explores wildlife immune defense and infection in the context of environmental change, using a combination of computer simulations, analysis of published data, pathogen diagnostics, and field studies of wild bats and birds.
Research Fields
My research combines field studies of wild bats and birds, ecoimmunology, comparing evolutionary relationships, theoretical models, and machine learning to understand how pathogens spread within and between animal populations and species and how environmental change will alter disease risks.
Skills and Expertise
- Epidemiology
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Wildlife Ecology
- Conservation
- Evolution
- Conservation Biology
- Wildlife Conservation
- Biodiversity
Research: Infectious Disease Dynamics
