Sarah Gurth, Graduate Student, Australia

Sarah Guth is a third-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Sarah is advised by Professor Mike Boots and studies the evolutionary underpinnings of cross-species zoonotic emergence. Sarah is carrying out a subset of dissertation chapters in part with Ekipa Fanihy, specifically investigating seasonal variation in inter-species contact rates, as well seasonal viral pulsing of potentially zoonotic viruses shed in bat excretia. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Conservation Biology from Middlebury College and has previously studied foraging and learning behavior in bees, as well as served as the Program Coordinator for Harvard University’s Planetary Health Alliance.