URI Center For Vector-Borne Disease

Dr. Thomas Mather

Dr. Mather came to URI in 1992 from the Harvard School of Public Health, and now serves as director of URI's Center for Vector-Borne Disease. For the past several spring/summer tick seasons, Dr. Mather and experts from the Center have led a series of unique community-based workshops in high tick-risk neighborhoods where they demonstrate tick control and tick-bite prevention strategies. His work has received state and national recognition and is funded by the National Centers for Disease Control, the US Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health.

Nate Miller

Nate received a Master of Science degree in Animal Science from the University of Rhode Island in 1998 studying ticks and their reproductive hosts. Since that time he has continued working in the Center for Vector-Borne Disease as a research associate on all aspects of tick ecology, control, pathogen transmission and anti-tick vaccine development. Currently his main focus, along side Dr. Mather, is working on unique community-based workshops in high tick-risk neighborhoods demonstrating tick control and tick-bite prevention strategies.

Megan Dyer

Megan graduated from URI in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences. Since then, she has been working as a research assistant at the Center for Vector-Borne Disease, where she works on several projects dealing with tick control and ecology, as well as pathogen transmission. She is the technical field specialist in charge of a community based tick control study evaluating the 4-Poster tick control device in Narragansett, RI. The 4-Poster is a device developed by USDA that attracts white-tailed deer to a baited station where they are treated with a tick-killing pesticide, interrupting tick reproducation and the tick life-cycle.

Erin Rainone

Erin graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2002 with a Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. She has worked as a Natural Resource Associate at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indian Head, Maryland and most recently joins us from the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology department at Brown University. Now, as a research assistant for the Center for Vector-Borne Disease she is involved with a variety of ongoing projects relating to tick control and awareness. In addition, she has taken an active role in planning important events and activities for the Center's community outreach program.

Kimberly Kowal Arcand

Kim, a graduate in biology from the University of Rhode Island, started out in multimedia development with URI's Computer Science department. She then worked on producing interactive, educational games for URI's Center for Vector-Borne Disease on the topics of Lyme disease and tick awareness. She is currently the Media Production Coordinator for the Chandra X-ray Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her work includes astronomical visualization, multimedia development and related outreach activities as part of the CXC's Education and Outreach Group that serves the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a mission funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She has received awards from NASA and the Smithsonian Institution and continues to be a part of the developing field of scientific visualization.

The 3D Group for Interactive Visualization

Dr. Jean-Yves Hervé

Jean-Yves Hervé joined the Dept. of Computer Science and Statistics in 2000. His main research interests are computer vision, modeling and simulation, and their application to scientific visualization, robotics, and bioinformatics. In a previous appointment at École Polytechnique de Montréal (Québec) he was involved in a number of industrial application projects. Current research projects include real-time interposition in Augmented Reality, space perception for "smart monsters" in video games, modeling and simulation of pedestrian evacuation, and pedestrian visual tracking for surveillance applications.

Brian Mullen

Brian is Project Manager for the 3D Group for Interactive Visualization at the University of Rhode Island. Brian greatly appreciates the opportunity he has to explore a wide variety of topics while he strives to recreate ideas through the digital medium.