How infectious diseases emerge, spread and evolve in wildlife and people

The Park Lab combines mathematical models, ecological theory and large-scale data to study host–parasite interactions, from viruses circulating in bat populations to parasites across the world’s mammals and birds.

Our research Publications
Illustrative example of specialist, intermediate and generalist parasites Fourteen host species are shown as the tips of an uneven phylogenetic tree, so hosts on nearby branches are close relatives. A specialist parasite infects three hosts that sit together on one branch. An intermediate parasite infects two separate pairs of close relatives. A generalist parasite infects five hosts spread across the whole tree. Specialistclose relativesGeneralistdistant relativesIntermediatetwo related groups Host phylogenetic tree
An illustrative example, not real data. Pink dots are parasites. Blue dots are the host species they infect, placed as the tips of a phylogenetic tree so that hosts on nearby branches are close relatives. Parasites fall along a spectrum, from specialists that infect close relatives to generalists that infect distant relatives. Understanding how parasites differ in this phylogenetic specificity, why they differ, and what the consequences are for disease emergence, spread and host communities is a major research focus in our lab.

Research

Five connected themes. Most projects sit at the meeting point of two or more.

Join the lab

We welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students and postdoctoral researchers with interests in disease ecology, macroecology and infectious disease modeling. Please send a short note about your interests and a CV.

awpark@uga.edu

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