Current Members

Dr. Anna Jolles

Associate Professor

I am a disease ecologist and epidemiologist at OSU with appointments in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Zoology. I studied Physics at Freiburg University in Germany and Biology at Oxford University, England and came to the United States as a graduate student, earning my PhD from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I study infectious diseases in wild mammals. My current research investigates questions like - How do gastro-intestinal parasites affect TB dynamics in African buffalo?; Does feline AIDS mediate what infections occur in African lions?; How does intensive forest management affect the prevalence of Hanta virus in small mammals?; and What factors explain variation among species in their propensity for transmitting infections? My students and I routinely collaborate with land and wildlife management agencies to conduct their field work, and use mathematical models to interpret the resulting data.

Contact: jollesa@science.oregonstate.edu

Website: https://vetmed.oregonstate.edu/people/anna-jolles

Dr. Brianna Beechler

Assistant Professor, Senior Research

I earned my DVM at Oregon State University and completed a PhD and a postdoc in the Jolles lab. I have continued working closely with Dr. Jolles in my current position. I study the connections between host physiology, microbial communities, and disease transmission in wildilfe. I am also interested in vector ecology, antibiotic resistance, and the relationship between host environment and parasite communities.

Contact: brianna.beechler@oregonstate.edu

Website: http://vetmed.oregonstate.edu/people/brianna-beechler

Leigh Combrink

Postdoctoral fellow

I grew up in South Africa and developed a love for nature that shaped my career. After completing a bachelors and honours in ecology and zoology, I did my masters in conservation biology, with my thesis focusing on the use of barn owls as biocontrol agents in South African wheat fields. Following this, I spent over 10 years in the conservation non-profit sector focusing on leopard conservation, farmer outreach and species re-introductions. In 2014, I embarked on my PhD on the ecology of the endangered Southern Ground-hornbill in the Kruger National Park. For my postdoc, I am looking at patterns and consequences of microbiome ontogeny in African buffalo at Oregon State University.

Contact: combrink.leigh@gmail.com

Ricardo Noe Gerardo Reyes Grimaldo

PhD Student

Before joining the Jolles lab, I earned a B.S. in applied mathematics and biology at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, with a thesis on iron homeostasis within the cell. I also hold a Masters degree in mathematics at Oregon State University, where I designed a theoretical model for the spread of malaria that considers different demographics of the vector populations. My current research involves the incorporation of antibody dynamics and gain/loss of immunity within the host for foot and mouth disease in African buffalo to study its effects of persistence of the disease in the wild. My main focus centralizes on the use and design of different mathematical models to better understand the several mechanisms that intertwine in the spread of diseases both in wildlife and human populations.

Contact: reyesgrr@oregonstate.edu

Henri Combrink

PhD student

I completed my undergraduate studies in nature conservation and a masters in environmental management in South Africa. I then worked for provincial conservation authorities and conservancies, honing my project management and landowner engagement skills. In 2009, I took up a position with the University of Cape Town managing a long-term vegetation research project based in Kruger National Park. This provided the foundation for my work as a research technician on the African buffalo research project conducted by the University of Pretoria and Oregon State University in the Kruger National Park. I am currently a PhD student at the department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University.

Contact: henricombrink@gmail.com

Paige Prentice

Master's student

I earned a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a B.A. in Anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz. In 2015, I began working as a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, monitoring and managing desert bighorn sheep populations in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. I am now working with the Jolles and Epps labs to pursue a M.S. in Wildlife Science. I am interested in bighorn sheep metapopulation dynamics, connectivity, genetic diversity, immunity, disease susceptibility and population performance. Specifically, my research focuses on diet quality variation across ranges and the impacts of low-diet quality (high stress) periods on individual, and potentially population level, performance.

Contact: paige.prentice@oregonstate.edu

Thomas Tripolone

Master's Student

I earned my undergraduate degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of New Hampshire in 2009. Prior to joining the Jolles lab, I worked as a Plant Health Compliance Officer for the US Department of Agriculture both in Massachusetts and Texas, and as a Biological Scientist for the US Air Force in Colorado. I am interested in vector-borne zoonotic disease pathways and their impact on US agriculture, emergency/disease response, and agricultural smuggling in relation to disease ecology. My Masters research will focus on leishmaniasis ecology and transmission in Costa Rica.

Contact: tripolot@oregonstate.edu