People Type: Research staff

Biography David Jansen, PhD, is a data scientist who started at the MCE-VBD in February 2023. David has broad experience in behavioral research, database management, statistical modeling, and data visualization. He enjoys being a resource for his colleagues and providing advice on statistical modeling, coding, and research reproducibility. Prior to joining the center, David worked …

Biography Phurchhoki works in the Hill lab (Entomology Department) at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. She has a master’s degree in Medical Entomology from Cornell University. She has experiences working with mosquito and tick vectors. For her MS thesis, Phurchhoki worked with the invasive tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis aka Asian longhorned tick. Before moving to Purdue, …

Biography Brad Tucker is a research specialist who started with the MCE-VBD in June of 2017.  In 2002, Brad joined the laboratory of Dr. Wayne Rowley at Iowa State University just as the epidemic of West Nile virus was hitting the central United States.  He continued on at Iowa State after Dr. Rowley retired, working …

Biography Tela Zembsch is a research specialist at the MCE-VBD. She has worked in a variety of roles for the center starting in 2017 as a summer field intern, and later as a Master of Entomology student studying the coinfection prevalence of Babesia species and Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes scapularis. In addition, she led the …