Dr. July Pilowsky

Current Research

Dr. Pilowsky is collaborating with Dr. Barbara Han and the interdisciplinary Verena Institute on disease ecology and viral spillover. They are applying process-explicit modeling techniques to better understand mechanisms that regulate disease prevalence in wild mammal populations, as well as spillover across species and into humans. They will use these results to identify traits in mammals that facilitate disease transmission across species, allowing the identification of high-risk species and contributing to public health.

Previous Research

In a joint PhD program between the University of Adelaide and the University of Copenhagen, Dr. Pilowsky developed software for simulating species range dynamics over paleo timescales in a process-explicit manner. They applied this process-explicit technique to modeling the range collapses of the extinct steppe bison and threatened European bison, contributing to knowledge about how extinctions occur over long timescales, and generating management-relevant predictions of suitable areas for European bison reintroductions.