Contact Information
505 S. Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Research Description
Ecology of infectious diseases
Brian is broadly interested in the ecology of infectious diseases, particularly diseases transmitted via the bite of an infected arthropod (e.g., ticks, mosquitoes). Much of Brian's research focuses upon the consequences of human-mediated global change, such as climate change and human land-use, on the risk of exposure to parasites and pathogens carried by wildlife. While Brian works on these questions in a wide variety of wildlife communities and disease systems, he is especially interested in understanding the effects of landscape change on the emergence and transmission of tick-borne diseases. He uses a broad array of tools in approaching these questions, including molecular technologies, remote sensing applications, and theoretical modeling.
Education
PhD, 2009, Washington University in St. Louis
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Director for Academic Affairs, School of Integrative Biology
Professor, Entomology
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Professor, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor, Center for African Studies
External Links
Recent Publications
Merrill, T. E. S., Aguirre, A. A., Allan, B. F., & Whittier, C. A. (2025). Ecosystems and infectious disease. In Global One Health and Infectious Diseases: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner's Guide (pp. 164-191). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003232223-9
Chakraborty, S., Sander, W., Allan, B. F., & Andrade, F. C. D. (2024). Sociodemographic factors associated with Kyasanur forest disease in India - a retrospective study. IJID Regions, 10, 219-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijregi.2024.02.002
Dinh, L., Barley, W. C., Johnson, L., & Allan, B. F. (2024). Hyperauthored papers disproportionately amplify important egocentric network metrics. Quantitative Science Studies, 5(3), 613-636. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00307
Lieberthal, B., Allan, B., De Urioste-Stone, S., Mackay, A., Soliman, A., Wang, S., & Gardner, A. M. (2024). The effects of seasonal human mobility and Aedes aegypti habitat suitability on Zika virus epidemic severity in Colombia. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 18(11), Article e0012571. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0012571
McFarland, D., Fredericks, L. P., Hedlund, T., Jones, S., Keesing, F., Mutinda, M., & Allan, BF. (2024). A Suite of Pathogens Detected in Ticks Sampled From Wildlife Hosts in Central Kenya. African Journal of Ecology, 62(3), Article e13317. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13317