Personal information
Biography
I am currently a Professor and Coordinator of the Section of Medical Entomology of the Department of Parasitology, University of Costa Rica (UCR), and investigator of this university’s Vectors Research Laboratory of the Center for Research in Tropical Diseases (Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales, CIET). I have worked in medical entomology and infectious diseases since the year 2001, mainly coordinating and teaching courses on Medical Entomology, Vector Control, Epidemiology, and Parasitology, as well as performing research in topics that include vectors and vector-borne diseases, such as arboviruses and rickettsioses. My research activities and training include field surveys and collection of vectors and ectoparasites, epidemiological research, GIS and remote sensing, taxonomy of arthropods that affect humans, and diagnostic techniques including molecular biology and immunological methods. I have authored 82 peer-reviewed publications in various aspects of diseases caused or transmitted by arthropods, such as diagnosis, ecology, epidemiology, surveillance, and control. In the past 15 years, I have been performing research mainly concerning epidemiology and ecology of mosquito and tick-borne agents. My work on mosquitoes and mosquito-borne viruses includes dengue, chikungunya, and Zika transmission by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, insecticide resistance, dengue epidemiology, and mosquito vector surveillance, diversity and ecology . Concerning tick-borne organisms, my research has specifically included determining and characterizing the species of Rickettsia present in Costa Rica, the ectoparasites and vertebrate hosts involved, as well as pathogenic potential of isolates. I have had 21 undergraduate and graduate student trainees successfully complete their thesis/projects required for graduation, and have served as jury for 5 international PhD thesis (Colombia). As with other countries in the neotropical region, there is an urgent need for research and training on vector-borne disease ecology, especially aimed to impact prevention and control. In this sense, I have have collaborated with the Ministry of Health's Integrated Vector Management Program for more than 15 years: we have prepared training courses/workshops, and collaborated on research projects to evaluate insecticide resistance in Aedes. Our alliances have impacted policy and decisions regarding mosquito control and surveillance in Costa Rica.