Patrick Stephens

Patrick Stephens is an Associate Professor in Integrative Biology at Oklahoma State University. His research focuses on macroecological and phylogenetic approaches to understand large-scale infectious disease dynamics and biodiversity patterns. He leads NIH and NSF-funded projects investigating ebolavirus spillover, socioeconomic factors in pandemic risk, and squamate reptile biodiversity. Stephens teaches courses on disease ecology and introductory biology.

Research Interests:

• Macroecology of infectious diseases, with emphasis on zoonotic spillover mechanisms
• Biodiversity conservation and evolutionary ecology of reptiles/amphibians
• Computational methods for large-scale ecological analysis

Grants:

• NIH-funded project (2022-2026): Ebolavirus spillover in African mammals
• NSF-funded study (2024-2027): Oklahoma County pandemic drivers
• US-Israel Binational Science Foundation grant: Global tetrapod biodiversity analysis

Teaching: Courses include Disease Ecology (BIOL 4333/5333), Introductory Biology, and graduate research supervision.

Labs/Teams: Stephens Lab uses machine learning and big data to address ecological and epidemiological questions. Current projects include statistical modeling of outbreak risk and biodiversity dynamics.