Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Kristina Ceres is an inaugural Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health Postdoctoral Fellow, and a graduate of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's combined DVM-PhD program. Her research utilizes non-invasive genetic sampling to study disease and population dynamics of endangered carnivore species. Her faculty mentors are Cornell’s Dr. Martin Gilbert and Dr. Laura Goodman, as well as Stanford University’s Dr. Dmitri Petrov.

Kristina’s first project aims to enhance understanding of the disease risks faced by the endangered dhole (Cuon alpinus), or Asiatic wild dog. Dholes are possibly the least studied social canid species in the world, and although disease is a known threat to their survival, the specific infectious disease risks they face remain almost entirely unknown. Kristina is deploying non-invasive genetic sampling and mark-recapture models to investigate pathogen threats to dhole survival in Thailand. She will apply phylodynamics (combining approaches from evolutionary biology, immunology and epidemiology to elucidate the sources and dissemination patterns of pathogens) and metapopulation modelling (evaluating the impacts of disease on dhole social group structure). Dr. Ceres will integrate these findings to assess simulated intervention scenarios focused on interrupting pathogen transmission patterns, with the goal of developing strategies to ensure the long-term health of dhole populations.