POSTDOC
Princeton University
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellows Program

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Dr. Sonia Altizer,
a research associate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is supported jointly through research grants, the EEB Department, and the Council on Science and Technology. Sonia is very enthusiastic about teaching and engaging students in scientific research, and last year she co-taught EEB 210, a non-majors evolutionary ecology course, with Professor Daniel Rubenstein. As a part of this course, she developed lectures and activities addressing basic evolutionary principles such as adaptation, selection, and the evolution of sexual reproduction, and designed a 2-week laboratory on speciation and coevolution in monarch butterflies. Sonia encourages inquiry in the classroom by confronting students with pertinent problems to address individually or in small groups. In the laboratory, students are expected to formulate and test their own hypotheses and share their findings with the class. “I feel extremely privileged to teach a subject that is inherently interesting, because science is a process of discovery driven by curiosity and perseverance.” In collaboration with Professor Andrew Dobson, Sonia is studying the impact and spread of infectious diseases in wildlife populations. As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, Sonia studied the ecological and genetic interactions between monarch butterflies and an obligate protozoan parasite throughout their North American range. In collaboration with Dr. Craig Packer, she also explored the population dynamics of 6 viral pathogens in Serengeti lions. Currently, Sonia is using epidemiological models to evaluate the potential of parasites to serve as biological control agents for invasive brown treesnakes on the island of Guam. She is also contributing to a large-scale comparative study to examine the links between primate social and mating behavior and the diversity and prevalence of infectious diseases. Sonia Altizer will be the first graduate of the program, as she will be leaving in January 2000 to begin a new position as an assistant professor at Emory University in their newly formed Department of Environmental Studies.