Thomas N. Mather

Dr. Mather (a.k.a. the TickGuy) 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 and its TickEncounter Resource Center. His research focus is on tick ecology, area-wide tick control strategies, tick-bite protection, and tick-borne disease prevention. His research and outreach programs are diverse, including anti-tick vaccine discovery projects, evaluations of targeted tick control strategies, tick-borne disease risk prediction, as well as development of tick-bite protection decision support tools and social networking strategies for tick-borne disease prevention. His work has received local, national, and even international recognition and has attracted more than $13 million from a wide variety of sources, including the National Centers for Disease Control, the US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Agency for International Development, and the National Institutes of Health.

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ErinRainone

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.

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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.

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Nate Miller Alumni

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.

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Kimberly Kowal Arcand Alumni

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.

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