Kelly Weinersmith here! The third round of the #SciFund Challenge has begun! There are some really amazing projects this round, and you can find them here.

There are a few parasite/pathogen related projects this round, which of course has me quite excited.

Continue reading #SciFund Round 3 is here! →

Lectures on Monogeneans! As usual, please feel free to leave a comment to tell me how I could improve my lectures, and to correct any inaccuracies.

I’m mentoring some high school students this summer through UCSB’s Summer Sessions Research Mentorship Program, and am working on a lecture series on parasitology. I always do a practice lecture, and have decided to record these practice lectures and put them on my website. While the lecture is geared towards high school students, these students are quite advanced and so I plan on treating the lectures as though they are geared towards undergraduate students. The lectures will emphasize fish parasites, as the students will be working with me on my dissertation project studying fish parasites, and because that’s what I know most about. ;)

Please provide comments on how I can be a more effective lecturer in the comments section below!

The first lecture defines different types of species interactions, and then overviews the framework proposed by Lafferty and Kuris 2002 for defining “natural enemies” (i.e., different types of parasite, pathogens, and predators).

NOTE: By upcoming lectures on Monogeneans I learn how to appropriately crop the images so the top and bottom aren’t cut off.

This second lecture is a bit more fun, and discusses the integrative nature of parasitology. It also discusses the link between the field of parasitology and times of war.