JULIA POJE

I am broadly interested in the ecology of vector-borne diseases. In particular, I’m interested in how environmental perturbations impact host and vector populations, and how those impacts can influence disease dynamics.

For my master’s research, I am focused on sylvatic plague dynamics among prairie dog populations in the western United States. I am researching how local weather patterns influence prairie dog burrow microclimates and how microclimatic variation impacts the life history of the fleas that transmit plague. I hope that this research will lead to a better understanding how climate change will impact plague dynamics in the future.

email: poje2@wisc.edu