I am a mathematical biologist who uses dynamical systems theory to answer scientific questions at the intersection of population ecology and epidemiology. I develop and analyze models to provide insights into how we might better suppress epidemics, whether it be through preventing the spillover of new pathogens from wildlife populations or stopping the spread of familiar diseases like malaria or cholera within human communities. I expand past models by incorporating additional biological, ecological, or social mechanisms which scientists suspect may play important roles in infectious disease transmission. The work I’ve done can be used to inform public health policies (Drake et al. 2021; Howerton, Dahlin, et al. 2023), improve conservation plans for species threatened by disease (Dahlin and Feng 2019), and investigate the factors determining the risk of pathogen spillover from wildlife (Dahlin, et al. 2024).

My primary interests lie in studying the mechanisms that make the elimination or suppression of mosquito-borne disease so difficult. Suppressing directly transmitted diseases requires limiting social interactions, something that is broadly unpopular but has been accomplished successfully throughout history and across the world, including the eradication of smallpox and the suppression of SARS-CoV-1. A simple question that motivates my research is: Why are mosquito-borne diseases so hard to eliminate when getting bitten by mosquitoes is so annoying?