معرفی
Van Savage, Ph.D., is a full-time Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, jointly appointed in the Department of Computational Medicine (David Geffen School of Medicine) and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (College of Life Sciences). His research sits at the intersection of ecology, systems biology, biophysics and computational medicine, with a central focus on how scaling laws, metabolic constraints and temperature shape biological processes from molecules to ecosystems.
His work leverages theoretical ecology and large-scale data to understand climate-change impacts on vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and Zika, to elucidate the structure and energy efficiency of neuronal and vascular networks, and to develop predictive frameworks that link organismal traits to ecosystem dynamics in the Anthropocene.
Research Themes
- Temperature dependence of biological interactions and disease transmission
- Metabolic scaling theory across plants, microbes and animals
- Network architecture of neurons, blood vessels and ecological food webs
- Antibiotic resistance evolution under thermal stress
- Trait-based forecasting of ecosystem resilience to global change
Recent Publication Trends
Across 2023-2025, Savage’s articles emphasize four converging areas: (1) nonlinear temperature effects on vector-borne disease incidence, (2) scaling and energetic constraints in neural and vascular networks, (3) eco-evolutionary dynamics in microbial communities and plankton, and (4) advanced theoretical frameworks for predicting higher-order ecological interactions under multiple stressors including antibiotics and climate warming.
Laboratories & Teams
He leads an interdisciplinary group that combines computational modeling with empirical data from remote sensing, laboratory microbial experiments and field ecology, facilitating cross-cutting collaborations between medical school, life sciences and climate-science communities at UCLA.
