THE LAB GROUP
Lab Head:
​
Courtney C. Murdock
Associate Professor
6136 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
Contact: ccm256@cornell.edu
607-255-0904
Post-doctoral Researchers
Laura Multini
Post-doctoral Researcher (April 2024 - present)
6138 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
​
email: lcm234@cornell.edu
I am a mosquito biologist interested in understanding the environmental factors shaping mosquito traits and vector competence. My key interests lie in integrating both biotic and abiotic factors, which influence ecological processes at varying spatial scales, to determine their impact on mosquito development, adult life-history traits, and transmission potential. In my role at the Murdock lab, I will specifically investigate how constant and fluctuating temperatures affect West Nile virus competence in the mosquito vector Culex tarsalis.
Anna Langmüller
MSCA Post-doctoral Global Fellow (January 2022 - present)
Weill Hall
Department of Computational Biology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
email: aml452@cornell.edu
I investigate the effect of population structure on the spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases using evolutionary simulation models as well as powerful statistical frameworks. I hope that my research sheds light on how spatial structure affects host-pathogen dynamics and how we can use this knowledge to improve disease forecasting and evaluate proposed intervention strategies.
Brandy St Laurent
Research Associate (February 2023 - present)
6140 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
​
​email: bs744@cornell.edu
I am a vector ecologist interested in malaria transmission in areas with diverse vector species. I have done extensive field work in Southeast Asia and Africa, collecting malaria mosquitoes in forests and villages to examine their feeding behaviors. I have most recently dabbled in the population genomics of several Southeast Asian malaria vectors from my collections to investigate the population structure of these mosquitoes in a region where drug-resistant malaria parasites are spreading and insecticide-resistance is increasing. I have also done malaria transmission experiments in the lab to see how well malaria parasite isolates from the field infect diverse species. My work in the Murdock lab will focus on the impact of malaria parasite infection on Anopheles mosquito life history traits and behaviors.
Jules Davis
NSF Post-doctoral Fellow (September 2023 - present)
6132 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
​
​email: jkdavis@umass.edu
I am interested in the ecology of pollinators and herbivores in natural and agricultural ecosystems. My research explores the basic ecological dynamics between soil, plant, herbivore and pollinator communities; and how land use practices alter these relationships. My postdoctoral research focuses on how floral resources in agricultural landscapes affect pollinator nutrition and immunity to pathogens.
Graduate Students
Nicole Solano
NSF IDEAS PhD student (August 2017 - present)
136 Ecology Building
Odum School of Ecology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
​
​email: nsolano@uga.edu
I am interested in exploring the effect of larval interspecific competition on adult mosquito community dynamics and fitness with regards to disease transmission, how the outcome of competition is mediated by variation in microclimate due to land use change, and how mathematical models could use these data for broad-scale predictions about human disease transmission.
Mike Newberry
NSF GRFP and IDEAS PhD student (August 2017 - present)
136 Ecology Building
Odum School of Ecology
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
​
​email: PMnewberry@uga.edu
I am investigating the interaction of the microbiome, the mosquito vector, and environmental factors. This includes examining within host and outside host microbial communities and observing how they vary across land use and season. I also intend to empirically determine the impacts of the microbiome on the vectorial capacity and life history traits of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. My overall goal is to utilize a line of questioning that spans multiple scales of ecology to better understand abiotic and biotic drivers of vector-borne disease transmission.
Britny Johnson
PhD student (January 2022 - present)
6140 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 15853
​
​email: blj54@cornell.edu
Mosquitoes are arguably one of the deadliest organisms on the planet next to humans and are responsible for more deaths in the world than any other animal due to the diseases they carry. Specifically, malaria infects around 240 million people and kills approximately 620,000 people each year of which 80% are children under the age of 5. With climate change shifting habitat range and environmental conditions, it is important to understand how these changes might impact the dynamics between mosquitoes and malaria. My research interests include life history traits and trade-offs that occur between them. My goal is to understand how the mosquito allocates energy between reproduction and immunity in varying environmental conditions and then use that knowledge to better predict the dynamics of malaria infection in mosquitoes.
Anna Shattuck
NSF GRFP PhD student (August 2023 - present)
6138 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
​
​email: avs79@cornell.edu
I am interested in the effects of climate change on vector-borne disease. The main question I plan to explore is whether mosquitoes are behaviorally selecting microclimates they experience to maximize fitness. Then, using a temperature-dependent mathematical model, I hope to update predictions of temperature suitability for disease transmission with the effective temperature range mosquitoes experience in the field, incorporating behavioral selection and fine-scale environmental heterogeneity. I will be exploring these questions using the Aedes albopictus system, a globally distributed, invasive mosquito that is the secondary vector for dengue virus.
Patrick Heffernan
NIH F31 PhD student (August 2021 - present)
Co-mentored with Jason Rohr
Biological Sciences
Notre Dame University
South Bend, IN 46556
​
​email: pheffer3@nd.edu
I am interested in the effects of abiotic factors on vector-borne disease. My primary research goal is to characterize how temperature and insecticides interact to influence arbovirus transmission. To accomplish this aim, I am experimentally quantifying key transmission-linked traits in the Dengue virus-Aedes aegypti system to parameterize a temperature- and insecticide-dependent mathematical model. I hope to use this model to enhance predictions of transmission suitability and inform control strategies.
Research Staff
Jared Skrotzki
The Mosquito Whisperer (June 2023 - present)
6138 Comstock Hall
Department of Entomology
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 15853
​
​email: js3729@cornell.edu
Undergraduate Researchers
Erin Connelly (Jan 2021 - Dec 2022)
Sarah Smail (Sep 2021 - Spring 2023)
Anna Asomoah (Jan 2023 - Summer 2023)
Elora Robeck (Sep 2023 - present)
Olivia Cheung (Sep 2023 - present)
Adrienne Healy (Sep 2023 - present)
Tongxiao Han (Sep 2024 - present)
