About One Health

Scientific Advisors

Scott Nuismer

Scientific Lead
snuismer@uidaho.edu

Scott L. Nuismer is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences whose research focuses on using mathematical and computational models to understand biological processes. He is now leading the initiative for Computational One Health and researching better ways to monitor the health of wild animal populations and deliver medicines and vaccines that improve the health of these populations while simultaneously reducing the risk of spillover into the human population.

Michael Maughan

Engineering Lead
mmaughan@uidaho.edu

Michael Maughan is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Idaho. Prior to joining academia, he worked in industry at both Fortune-50 and startup companies as a mechanical designer and engineering manager. His research expertise is in material behavior, design, and advanced manufacturing processes. He is currently working with the COH team to develop devices for vaccine distribution.

Christopher Remien

Mathematics Lead
cremien@uidaho.edu

Christopher H. Remien is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistical Science. His research focuses on developing and analyzing process-based, dynamic mathematical models and connecting such models with data. He is working within the IIDS Computational One Health initiative to study pathogen dynamics in wild animal populations, and to optimize interventions to lessen the impacts of pathogen spillover from these wild animal populations into humans.

Luke Sheneman

Computational Lead
sheneman@uidaho.edu

Luke is the Director of Research Computing and Data Services (RCDS). RCDS is the central provider of research computing infrastructure and services for the University of Idaho and provides investigators with state-of-the-art high performance computing (HPC) for use in modeling, analysis, and management of research data. He is actively involved in several research projects involving computer vision and artificial intelligence with applications in wildlife monitoring and sparse photon microscopy.

Research Scientists

Sarah Hendricks

Bioinformatics Data Scientist
shendricks@uidaho.edu

Sarah Hendricks received her Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from University of Idaho. Her research utilizes advanced genomic techniques to understand the threats to global biodiversity and to promote ecosystem conservation. She is currently working with the IIDS Computational One Health initiative to gain better insights into genomic factors that increase disease susceptibility and facilitate zoonotic spillover events.

Evan Eskew

Data Scientist
evane@uidaho.edu

Evan earned his BS in Biology from Davidson College and his PhD in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. His dissertation research focused on the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, which has caused devastating biodiversity loss worldwide. Specifically, Evan investigated the genetic responses of different amphibian hosts following exposure to the pathogen responsible for chytridiomycosis. As part of previous research on reptile and amphibian ecology, Evan has studied organisms ranging from diamondback terrapins in the coastal marshes of South Carolina to poison dart frogs in the tropical forests of Costa Rica.

Daniel J. Pope

Computational Scientist
pope@uidaho.edu

Daniel J. Pope earned his Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry at Washington State University in 2021 for work on modeling magnetic affects in alloys and developing software for graph theoretical analysis of chemical systems. He is now working within the IIDS Computational One Health initiative to help implement tools associated with modeling of biological systems.

Pias Biswas

Mechanical Engineering Research Scientist
pbiswas@uidaho.edu

Pias Biswas received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette in 2023. His research focused on the fabrication of various nanocomposite materials for structural and energy storage applications. Throughout his doctoral studies, he worked on several NSF-funded projects and collaborated with different industries to develop low-cost electrospinning devices for nanofiber production. He is currently working on the engineering side with the IIDS team to develop an AI-enabled device for vaccine distribution.