Mercedes Pascual

Mercedes Pascual is an Uruguayan theoretical ecologist, and a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, where she leads the Laboratory for Modeling and Theory in Ecology and Epidemiology (MATE). She was previously the Rosemary Grant Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Pascual has developed systems models for the study of complicated, irregular cycles in ecosystems, using mathematical, statistical and computational approaches. She applies these models to the study of food webs, ecology, and epidemiology, in particular the evolution of infectious diseases.

She has discovered relationships between El Niño climate patterns and the occurrence of cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh. One of the patterns she reports is that El Niño episodes are becoming an increasingly-strong driver of disease outbreaks. Her work may be the first quantitative evidence to show global climate change effecting an infectious disease. Other diseases that she studies include malaria and influenza. Her models can be used predictively in support of public health. Provided by Wikipedia