Odum School alumna Christina Faust, who received B.S. and M.S. degrees in ecology in 2009, has been named to the 2022 class of 40 Under 40 by the UGA Alumni Association. This honor celebrates young alumni who are leaders in their fields, finding creative solutions to world problems, leading businesses and serving their communities.
Faust, an ecologist studying infectious diseases and environmental change, was honored for her research that addresses the emergence of zoonotic diseases in human populations.
Faust is currently a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Independent Research Fellow at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Her recent work has focused on pathogen outbreaks over space and time in small mammals in eastern Uganda, with the goal identifying mechanisms driving disease transmission in a changing world, and providing guidance on environmental solutions to reduce human exposure to infection. She previously conducted post-doctoral research on the environmental drivers of zoonotic infection (animal pathogens that cause disease in humans) at Oxford University, Montana State University and Penn State University. She received her doctorate from Princeton University in 2016, where she was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow.
Faust’s interest in disease ecology began at UGA. Her thesis, completed under the direction of professors Sonia Altizer and David Stallknecht, was titled “Biological Factors Affecting Persistence of Avian Influenza Virus in Aquatic Environments.” A Foundation Fellow and Honors student, Faust received both Udall and Truman Scholarships. She was awarded a Mitchell Scholarship for graduate study in Ireland, and received her M.Sc. in Global Health and Immunology with first class honors at Maynooth University in 2010.
Among her recent honors are a 2022 Rising Talent fellowship in Sustainable Development from the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science (FWIS) program, which recognizes exceptional early career women scientists in the U.K. and Ireland. She will use her FWIS Award to identify mechanisms and key environmental features that reduce zoonotic rodent viruses within restored forests in Scotland. In 2018 she received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene for her work on population genetics of Schistosoma mansoni.
“In my 22 years of faculty experience working with undergraduates and entering graduate students, Christina’s commitment to excellence stands alone,” said Altizer, interim dean of the Odum School. “She is truly extraordinary in terms of her outstanding scholarship, initiative shown in her own research, and engagement in the community. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to follow her career and trailblazing scientific work on pathogen ecology and evolution at the human-wildlife interface, and see the impact her research is making in informing innovative strategies for improving both human and ecosystem health.”
The complete list of the 2022 40 Under 40 honorees is available at alumni.uga.edu/40u40/.