Mercedes Pascual

Mercedes Pascual serves as Professor in the Departments of Biology and Environmental Studies at New York University and holds an External Faculty position at the Santa Fe Institute. As a theoretical and computational ecologist, her work bridges infectious disease dynamics with environmental change research.

Her research portfolio spans:

• Climate-health interactions and disease forecasting
• Ecological evolution of pathogens under environmental stress
• Mathematical modeling of vector-borne transmission networks
• Theoretical frameworks for community ecology in disease systems
• Computational analysis of water-borne infection patterns

Professor Pascual's scientific contributions have earned significant recognition:

• Discover magazine's 50 most important women in science (2002)
• Robert H. MacArthur Award, Ecological Society of America (2014)
• Election to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019)
• Membership in American Association for the Advancement of Science

Her interdisciplinary approach connects ecological theory with public health applications, emphasizing how environmental fluctuations drive infectious disease patterns through complex biological networks.