Elisa Visher
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​     PhD Candidate in Integrative Biology

     Mike Boots's Lab at UC Berkeley

     NSF Graduate Research Fellow

     Yale University '14    





About Me

When I first started developing a strong interest in evolution, I was in a biological anthropology class. The idea that evolution was a process that could affect human beings' lived realities--their abilities to digest lactose and their propensities for disease--excited me. When I started learning about infectious disease evolution, I was even more excited by the idea that evolution could be an ongoing and relevant process happening on a lightning-fast time scale. Today, I am most motivated by fairly theoretical questions in infectious disease evolution rather than any truly applied questions, but the downstream relevance of my questions towards these ends still strongly motivates me. My history in the social sciences also means that I am interested in combining insights from these fields into our broader understandings of biological processes. This background also means that I am critical of the ways that social structures inform people's access to science and am strongly committed to trying to make science more inclusive of and welcoming to people from diverse backgrounds.

My scientific background is almost entirely in the wet lab, but I'd describe my interests as empirical evolutionary theory and I'm also starting to develop my skill set and literacy in mathematical theory approaches. For my PhD, I'm interested in the effects of host population structure on infectious disease evolution, especially looking at the structuring of host genetic diversity. More broadly, I'm interested in the conditions that affect the evolution of virulence, generalism/specialism, emergence, and adaptability in infectious diseases. In the wider biological literature, I am extremely excited about theoretically and conceptually driven evolution research, especially when it has a predictive bent or sheds light on the processes underlying broad patterns.



Curriculum Vitae

Research Positions

Mike Boots Lab (2016-Present)
PhD Candidate
Department of Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley
PROJECTS: Effects of Host Genetic Diversity on Infectious Disease Evolution

Adam Lauring Lab (2014-2016)
Research Laboratory Technician Associate
Department of Infectious Diseases
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
PROJECTS: Mutational Robustness of Influenza A Virus


Paul Turner Lab (2012-2014)
Undergraduate Researcher
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Yale University, New Haven

PROJECTS: Experimental Evolution of Thermotolerance in Bacteriophage

Brenda Bradley Lab (2011-2014)
Undergraduate Researcher / Research Assistant
Department of Anthropology
Yale University, New Haven

PROJECTS: Microsatellite Genotyping of Chimpanzees from Fecal Samples, Mitochondrial Genotyping of Sifaka Lemurs

Teaching Positions

Field Genomics Short Course (Summer 2019)
Graduate Student Instructor
Instructor: Aaron Pomerantz

University of California, Berkeley
​

IB 114 : Infectious Disease Dynamics (Spring 2017)
Graduate Student Instructor
Professor: Mike Boots
University of California, Berkeley

IB 35AC : Human Biological Variation (Fall 2016)

Graduate Student Instructor
Professor: Leslea Hlusko
University of California, Berkeley

Education

​University of California, Berkeley (2016-Present)
PhD, Department of Integrative Biology (In Progress)
Advisor: Mike Boots
Thesis: "Effects of Spatio-Temporally Structured Host Genetic Diversity on Infectious Disease Evolution" (Proposed)
Qualifying Exam Committee: Britt Koskella, Michael Shapira, Carl Boettiger, and James Holland Jones (Passed December 2017)
Dissertation Committee: Mike Boots, Britt Koskella, Erica Bree Rosenblum
Training Courses: Evolutionary Biology in Guarda (June 2018)



Yale University (2010-2014)
BS, Biology (Intensive)
Advisor: Paul Turner
Thesis: "Characterization and Experimental Evolution of Thermotolerance in the Cystoviridae Family of Bacteriophage Virus"
BA Honors, Anthropology 

Advisor: Brenda Bradley
Thesis: "Evidence of Molecular Aging in the Mitochondria of Sifaka Lemurs"


Grants and Awards

NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2017)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow Honorable Mention (2016)
Dean's Summer Research Award (2018, 2019)
Departmental Conference Travel Grant (2018)
Graduate Division Conference Travel Grant (2018)

Peter and Marion Schwartz Family Foundation Prize for Most Outstanding Senior Essay in Biological Anthropology (2014)
Mellon Forum Fellow (2013)
Mellon Forum Grant Recipient (2013)
Tetelman Fellowship for International Research in the Sciences (2013)
Richter Fellowship for Summer Research (2013)


Full CV

Find me. 

Google Scholar
Twitter
my Orcid ID
Boots Lab Website
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  • Home
  • ABOUT ME
  • MY WORK
    • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
    • Service and Mentoring
  • BLOG
  • Contact