Global Health
Charlie Nunn is Gosnell Family Professor in Global Health with appointments in Evolutionary Anthropology and Duke Global Health Institute. He investigates the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases in wildlife, with special interest in primates and other mammals. In addition to addressing basic questions about wildlife diseases, his research aims to understand zoonotic disease risk and the conservation of biodiversity.
Nunn conducts fieldwork in rural Madagascar on the drivers of infectious disease transmission at the human-animal interface. His team models data on contact patterns and shared habitat use using social network analysis, and integrate the modeling with infectious disease screening, small mammal trapping and human surveys.
Many of his other research projects involve large-scale informatics datasets on mammalian parasites, with the aim to understand patterns of disease risk in natural systems and at the human-wildlife interface. He also models the spread of infectious agents in wild populations, including heterogeneities in contact structure based on knowledge of primate behavior and ecology.
Nunn teach courses in both Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health.