Emily Bruns

Emily Bruns is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases in natural populations, using plant-fungal pathogen systems as models. She investigates how disease impacts host abundance, distribution, and the evolution of resistance traits. Her lab employs experimental and mathematical approaches to study age-specific resistance, transmission modes, and host-pathogen coevolution.

Education:

• B.S., University of California, Santa Cruz (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
• Ph.D., University of Minnesota (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior)
• Postdoctoral Training: University of Virginia

Research Interests:

• Ecological and evolutionary impacts of infectious diseases
• Age-specific disease resistance evolution
• Host-pathogen coevolution and transmission dynamics
• Climate change effects on plant-pathogen interactions

Recent Awards:

• Early Career Award, Society for Evolutionary Demography (2016)
• NSF GRFP Honorable Mention (2009)
• Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Thesis (2006)

Grants and Funding:

• NSF BEE NSFDEB-NERC Grant (2020–2023)
• NIH R01GM140457 (2020–2024)
• NIH R01GM12206 (2016–2020)

Labs & Collaborations:

• Bruns Lab, University of Maryland
• Collaborations with J. Antonovics (UVA), M. Hood (Amherst College), and J.C. Metcalf (Princeton)