Lucy Ovens

Role

Lucy is a FERA/College of Life and Environmental Sciences funded PhD student working with Professor Robbie McDonald in the ESI studying Disease Transmission in a Social Network of Badgers, 2012

The focus of her PhD research project is how social behaviour impacts disease dynamics. Lucy's work is focussed on the Eurasion badger and bovine tuberculosis (bTB), looking specifically at the social behaviour of ‘superexcreting’ badgers (a highly infected subset of the population who may be disproportionately responsible for disease spread). This project aims to determine how these badgers interact with others in the population, through the use of social network analysis. She will then use this information to test the efficacy of alternative bTB control strategies.

Academic and research interests

Lucy is a keen conservation scientist, with her research interests focussed on

• the transmission and control of zoonotic disease. 

Qualifications

BSc Biological Sciences, University of Exeter (2010)

MSc Biodiversity & Conservation, University of Exeter (2012)