Dr. Allison Gardner, UMaine SBE: Decision-making under risk and uncertainty at the human-environmental health nexus.
In this seminar, Allie will share the highlights of her sabbatical during the 2023-2024 academic year, which she spent as a Master’s student in Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics. First, she will discuss how her professional path and collaborations during eight years at UMaine led to her interest in incorporating human behavior into her study of arthropod-borne disease. Second, she will give an overview of her primary research project over the past year, an analysis of New England residents’ willingness to pay a tax for tick control programs on public land, including the interacting effects of individuals’ health risk perceptions, environmental values, and scientific uncertainty on their decision-making. Finally, she will conclude with some reflections on the experiences of being a biophysical scientist at a social science institution, making an unanticipated return to full-time student life, and living in London.
Allie Gardner is an Associate Professor in the School of Biology and Ecology. She is a medical entomologist by training and her research focuses on the ecological drivers of vector-borne disease transmission and range expansion. Allie has worked in disease systems including Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Zika virus, and chikungunya virus, and she has extensive experience collaborating with interdisciplinary research teams, community scientists, and federal and state agency partners. Allie currently is 1/3 of the way to an undergraduate degree at UMaine through her abuse of the employee tuition waiver.
Hosted by SBE Director Seanna Annis