Katherine F. Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Brown University
Consulting Senior Scientist, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trust
Email: smithk@uga.edu
Tel: 706.542.6420
Fax: 706.542.4581
Web: http://katesmithlab.googlepages.com/
Kate Smith is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University and a Consulting Senior Scientist for Wildlife Trust.
Her lab group at Brown focuses on research in the fields of conservation medicine, disease biogeography and species extinction. Kate advises undergraduates, graduate students and a postdoctoral student at Brown where she teaches Conservation Medicine. At Wildlife Trust, Kate leads research efforts on wildlife trade. Her work has examined the role of disease in species extinction, the global distribution of human infectious agents, and most recently the potential for global wildlife trade to facilitate disease emergence.
Kate earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of New Mexico and Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from The University of California Santa Barbara – both with honors. She conducted postdoctoral research as a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow with Dr. Peter Daszak at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine at Wildlife Trust.
Kate has published broadly in journals such as Science, Ecology, Conservation Biology and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. She is the recipient of numerous honors including dissertation awards from the University of California Office of the President and American Association of University Women. Kate is a review editor for the journal EcoHealth and member of the scientific advisory committee for EcoHealth Divsersitas. She has participated in various NCEAS working groups on infectious disease ecology and has organized international conference symposia on the topic.
Selected Publications:
Smith, K.F., Acevedo-Whitehouse, K., and Pedersen, A.B. 2009. The role of infectious diseases in biological conservation. Animal Conservation 12: 1-12. PDF
Smith, K.F., Behrens, M.D., Max, L.M. and Daszak, P. 2008. U.S. drowning in unidentified fishes: Scope, implications and regulation of live fish import. Conservation Letters online early. PDF
Smith K.F., Sax, D.F., Gaines, S.D., Guernier, V., Guegan, J.F. 2007. Globalization of human infectious diseases. Ecology 88: 1903 - 1910. PDF
Smith, K.F., Sax, D.F. and Lafferty K.D. 2006. Evidence for the role of infectious disease in species extinction. Conservation Biology 20: 1349-1357.
Smith, K.F. and Carpenter, S. Spread of exotic black rat (Rattus rattus) parasites to endemic deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) on the California Channel Islands. In press, Diversity and Distributions.
Smith, K.F., Dobson, A.P., McKenzie, F.E., Real, L.A. , Smith, D.L. and Wilson , M.L. 2005. Ecological theory to enhance infectious disease control and public health policy. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3: 29-37.
Lafferty, K.D., Smith, K.F., Torchin, M.E., Dobson, A.P. and Kuris, A.M. 2005. What exotic species tell us about the role of infectious diseases in natural communities. In Exotic Species: Insights to Ecology, Evolution and Biogeography. Eds: Sax, D.F., Gaines , S.D. , Stachowicz, J.J.
Sax, D.F., Kinlan, B.P. and Smith, K.F. 2005. A methodology for understanding the effects of introduced species on community diversity. Oikos 108: 457-464.
Harley, C., Smith, K.F. and Moore , V. 2003. Rapoport's Rule in two dimensions: the relationship between bathymetric distribution and latitudinal range size in marine algae, gastropods, and fish. Global Ecology and Biogeography 12: 499-506.
Smith, K.F. and Gaines , S.D. 2003. Rapoport's bathymetric rule and the latitudinal species diversity gradient for Northeast Pacific fishes and Northwest Atlantic gastropods: evidence against a causal link. Journal of Biogeography 30: 1153-1159.
Smith, K.F. and Brown, J.H. 2002. Patterns of diversity, depth range and body size among pelagic fishes along a depth gradient. Global Ecology and Biogeography 11: 313-322.