Title: Professor
Institution: Northern Arizona University
Address: ARD-PMI, 1395 S Knoles Dr, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-4073
Email: jeff.foster@nau.edu
Phone: (928) 523-4008
Visit Jeffrey’s Research Website
Research Interests: disease ecology, pathogen genomics, diet metabarcoding, infectious disease, avian ecology, bat ecology, white-nose syndrome, eDNA
Biographical Sketch:
I have a varied background in wildlife ecology, ornithology, and conservation. I spent 5 years after college in a series of field positions for state and federal agencies across the western US and Pacific. My PhD focused on the ecology of introduced bird communities in Hawaii. My lab now works broadly on birds and bats and pathogens, often using genetic/genomic approaches. We do a blend of ecology and evolutionary biology, with other interests such as livestock diseases, pathogen genomics, seed dispersal, food webs, and conservation biology. Much of the work of the lab occurs in Hawaii, with a particular focus on the threats of invasive species to native Hawaiian species and their ecosystems, as well as avian malaria in Hawaiian honeycreepers. Other projects, national and international, include white-nose syndrome in bats, brucellosis in a range of livestock and wildlife hosts, avian cholera in waterfowl, and metabarcoding of animal diets (mostly birds and bats).
Education:
Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, IL), granted 2005