Zachary R. Popkin-Hall – Principal Investigator
I am a computational evolutionary geneticist with a broad interest in vector-borne diseases. I began my career as an undergraduate research assistant at Macalester College studying the biogeography and systematics of mite harvesters (tiny leaf-litter arachnids) in the Australian Wet Tropics with Dr. Sarah Boyer. I then spent a year teaching elementary school English as a Foreign Language in two small towns in South Korea before returning to science as a doctoral student. Over the course of my PhD in entomology at Texas A&M University, I worked with Dr. Michel Slotman on a range of questions related to the genomic basis of vertebrate host preference in the Anopheles gambiae complex of African malaria mosquitoes. After completing my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Jon Juliano at the University of North Carolina, primarily studying the genomics and epidemiology of non-falciparum malaria species, in close collaboration with researchers from Cameroon, Peru, and Tanzania. I joined the WCSU biology faculty in 2025.
For more information about me, check out my CV.
Sophia Chiaia – Master’s Student
Sophia earned her B.A. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Western Connecticut State University in Fall 2023. She is currently in her final semester of the M.S. program in Integrative Biological Diversity at WCSU and works in the WCSU Tickborne Disease and Prevention Laboratory (Tick Lab). She is working on identifying and performing genetic analyses of pathogens from Connecticut blacklegged ticks. She plans to pursue a career in scientific research and hopes to continue her training in a Ph.D. program. Outside of studying ticks, Sophia helps at an animal shelter and has a strong passion for wildlife.
WestConn Vector-Borne Disease Genomics Lab 