Sonia M. Altizer (born 1970) is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of

Ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

in the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Odum School of Ecology The Odum School of Ecology is a school within the University of Georgia and the successor of the UGA Institute of Ecology. It is named after Eugene Odum, renowned UGA biologist, the father of ecosystem ecology, and the founder of the Institute. ...

Early life

Altizer was born as the daughter of Jim and Chris Altizer of

Watkinsville, Georgia Watkinsville is the largest town and county seat of Oconee County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 2,896. It served as the seat of Clarke County until 1872 when the county seat of that county was ...

. She grew up in York, Pennsylvania. Her passion for

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

and the natural world began when she received a gift of a

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...

and a grow-your-own-butterflies kit on her twelfth birthday.

Education

Altizer received a B.S. from Duke University in 1992 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1998. She also did a postdoctoral work at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

Career

For 20 years since a graduate student of the University of Minnesota, Altizer traveled the world to study

monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly ( subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...

migration, ecology, and interactions with a

protozoan Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histori ...

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

. She has researched how

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum l ...

of these butterflies affects parasite transmission, and also developed collaborative databases of mammalian infectious diseases, on host behavior, ecology, and life history interact with global-scale patterns of parasitism. She also focused her research on songbird-pathogen dynamics, including studies of house finch

conjunctivitis Conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, is inflammation of the outermost layer of the white part of the eye and the inner surface of the eyelid. It makes the eye appear pink or reddish. Pain, burning, scratchiness, or itchiness may occur. The ...

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family ''Flaviviridae'', from the genus ''Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The virus ...

, and

salmonellosis Salmonellosis, more commonly known as food poisoning is a symptomatic infection caused by bacteria of the ''Salmonella'' type. It is also a food-borne disease and are defined as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by a ...

. Altizer has published several publications and she recently co-edited a book that would be published in 2015, titled Monarchs in a Changing World: Biology and Conservation of an Iconic Insect. She also and participated in high-level task forces dedicated to monarch butterfly conservation. A citizen science project called Monarch Health is run by her students at University of Georgia, which is now the eighth year. There are hundreds of volunteers across North America in sampling wild monarchs for a debilitating disease. Altizer held a number of administrative positions in the Odum School of Ecology, including Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (2012-2017), Academic Coordinator (2017-2019), Promotion and Tenure Chair (2020), and Associate Dean for Research and Operations (2020-2021). Most recently, she served as Interim Dean for the Odum School (2021-2023).

Research areas

Altizer's research interests are ecology of

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable d ...

in natural populations, evolution of host resistance and parasite virulence, insect ecology and

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

animal migration Animal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migration in ecology. It is found in all major animal groups, including birds, mammals, fish, repti ...

s, and

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human i ...

change and infectious disease dynamics.

Personal life

When Altizer is not on campus or traveling for work, she rides horses, and tends to her gardens and animals at home. She has two sons who are in grade school.

Publications

# 2014 ''Rushmore, J., Caillaud, D., Hall, R.J., Stumpf, R.M., Meyers, L.A. and Altizer, S. Network-based vaccination improves prospects for disease control in wild chimpanzees. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 11(97), 20140349'' # 2013 ''Altizer, S., Ostfeld, R.S., Harvell, C.D., Johnson, P.T.J., and Kutz, S. Climate change and infectious disease: from evidence to a predictive framework. Science. 341: 514-519.'' # 2013 ''Rushmore, J., D. Caillaud, L. Matamba, R. M. Stumpf, S. P. Borgatti, and S. Altizer. Social network analysis of wild chimpanzees with insights for infectious disease risk. Journal of Animal Ecology, 82: 976-986.'' # 2012 ''Streicker, D.G., Recuenco, S., Valderrama, W., Gomez-Benavides, J., Vargas, I., Pacheco, V., Condori, R.E, Montgomery, J., Rupprecht, C.E., Rohani, P. and Altizer, S. Ecological and anthropogenic drivers of rabies exposure in vampire bats: implications for transmission and control. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B. 279(1742):3384-92.'' # 2011 ''Altizer, S., Han, B and Bartel, R. Animal migrations and infectious disease risk. Science. 331: 296-302'' # 2010 ''Altizer, S., and Davis, A.K. Populations of monarch butterflies with different migratory behaviors show divergence in wing morphology. Evolution. In Press.'' # 2010 ''DeRoode, JC and Altizer, S. Host-parasite genetic interactions and virulence-transmission relationships in natural populations of monarch butterflies. Evolution. In press.'' # 2009 ''Harvell, C.D., Altizer, S., Cattadori, I., Harrington, L. and Weil, E. Climate change and wildlife diseases: when does the host matter the most? Ecology. 90: 912-920.'' # 2008 ''De Roode, J.C., Yates, A.J. and Altizer, S. Virulence-transmission trade-offs and population divergence in virulence in a naturally-occurring butterfly parasite. PNAS. 105: 7489-7494'' # 2008 ''Bradley, C.A., Gibbs, S.E.J. and Altizer, S. Urban land use predicts West Nile virus exposure in songbirds. Ecological applications. 18: 1083–1092''

Honors and awards

* 2020: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science * 2018: Lamar Dodd Award Creative Research Award * 2014: UGA Athletic Association Professor of Ecology * 2012: Odum School of Ecology Faculty Instructor of the Year Award * 2008: Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) * 2008: University of Georgia Award for Teaching Excellence * 2008: Odum School of Ecology Award for Teaching Excellence

References

External links

*
Infectious Disease Ecology in the Altizer Lab
* ISI highly cited researchers {{DEFAULTSORT:Altizer, Sonia University of Georgia faculty Animal migration Living people American ecologists Women ecologists Environmental scientists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists 1970 births Duke University alumni University of Minnesota alumni 21st-century American women academics Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers