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Latest From the Lab
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, December 2025 - The lab congratulates undergraduate research technician Hayden McGee on graduating with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, with a minor in Medical Humanities. Hayden is currently working as a medical assistant and plans to apply to medical school.
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, November 2025 - Congratulations to undergraduate honors student Abigail Moore for successfully defending her honors thesis! She will be graduating this fall with a B.A. in Spanish and a B.S. in Biology, with aspirations to attend medical school.
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, October 2025 - The Forbes lab had a wonderful time hosting Dr. Sarah Budischak, a collaborator on the Vole Fever project. During her visit, lab members shared updates on ongoing research, and enjoyed some tasty Thai food!
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, August 2025 - Welcome to the lab, Emmarie Gates, who is going to begin a PhD! Emmarie will be investigating zoonoses in bats on the African continent, with a particular interest in the zoonotic origins of ebolaviruses.
CHICAGO, IL, July 2025 - Lab members attended the Bat Infectious Diseases (BatID) conference, hosted at the University of Chicago. Postdoc Janine Mistrick, PhD student Sarah Munro, and PhD student Isabella DeAnglis participated in the meeting, with Isabella presenting a poster on her research. The group connected with collaborators and enjoyed some deep-dish pizza. SOUTH BEND, IN, June 2025 - Several members of the lab attended the annual Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) conference, held this year at the University of Notre Dame. Postdoc Janine Mistrick, PhD student Katy Wearing, and undergraduate student Anna Bolding presented posters related to the Vole Fever project. In addition to sharing their research, the team had the opportunity to connect with collaborators, attend exciting talks, and explore the sand dunes along Lake Michigan at Warren Dunes State Park. FAYETTEVILLE, AR, January 2025 - Welcome to the lab, Sarah Munro, who just began a PhD! Sarah will be monitoring populations of urban bats in Kenya to understand how internal and external host factors influence transmission of alphacoronaviruses and ebolaviruses. FAYETTEVILLE, AR, October 2024 - Welcome to the lab, Janine Mistrick, who is going to begin a Post doc! Janine will be investigating virus dynamics with voles in Finland and bats in Kenya. FAYETTEVILLE, AR, August 2024 - Welcome to the lab, Alois Mweu, who just began a PhD! Alois will be studying rodents and their viruses in Kenya. FAYETTEVILLE, AR, December 13, 2023 - Forbes Lab makes the news for Dr. Nathaniel Mull's discovery of novel rodent-based virus. Mull isolated the novel 'Ozark virus' from voles og the Ozark Plateau grasslands as part of his PhD studies. His findings were published in the journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases. See the full story here. 
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, November 30, 2023 - The Forbes lab is celebrating fresh PhD graduate, Dr. Reilly Jackson. Jackson defended her thesis entitled "Human-bat Interactions in a Disease Emergence Hotspot: Implications for Human Health and Bat Conservation." Jackson accepted the position of Terrestrial Wildlife Research Program Manager for Arizona Game and Fish Department. She will begin her new work in Phoenix in January 2024.
SWAKOPMUND, NAMIBIA, September 2023 - PhD Student, Reilly Jackson, awarded 1st Place Oral Presentation at the 2023 African Small Mammal Symposium in Nambibia. Jackson's was entitled "Rural structures are an important interface for human contact with bats (and their pathogens)."
FAYETTEVILLE, AR, May 13, 2023 - The Forbes lab is thrilled to congratulate PhD graduate, Dr. Nathaniel Mull. Nathaniel defended his thesis entitled "An Ecological Perspective of American Rodent-Borne Orthohantavirus Surveillance" in April this year and has accepted a tenure-track assistant professorship at Shawnee State University, OH, to begin in Fall 2023.
JONESBORO, AR, March 10, 2023 - PhD student, Reilly Jackson, wins best over-all presentation at joint meeting of Southeastern Bat Diversity Network and the Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals in the Southeastern U.S. Jackson entitled her presentation "Roost Selection by Synanthropic Bats in Rural Kenya and Implication for Human-wildlife Conflict." This was Jackson's first appearance at the annual meeting.
FAYETTEVILLE, March 6, 2023 - PhD students, Katy Wearing and Isabella DeAnglis, created an interactive education station for STEAM Night at Holcomb Elementary. The pair educated students on the importance of bats and rodents in seed dispersal. Students visiting their table created take-home seed bombs using native seed and biodegradable materials. Wearing additionally served as a judge in the Animal Science category of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Both Wearing and DeAnglis are members the Biology Graduate Student Association, where they learned of this local opportunity.
August 2022 - Welcome to the lab, Isabella DeAnglis and Katy Wearing, who have just began their PhDs! Isabella will be studying bats and their viruses in Kenya, and Katy, voles and their viruses in Finland.
May 2022 - Maybe you saw Kris on 40/29 local news recently. He was discussing recent research on the effects of climate change on pathogen spillover risk. May 2022 - Huge congrats to Reilly for being awarded another Sturgis Fellowship to support her research on bats in Kenya! April 2022 - big congrats to our undergrad students, Amy Schexnayder and Mary Claire Walker, who successfully defended their honors theses! And a second big congrats for both being accepted into medical school! We'll miss you in the lab! April 2022 - we're excited to welcome Reilly and Tamika back to the Arkansas lab. They have both been in Kenya conducting fieldwork for the past 3-months, and amazingly, collected samples from over 1000 bats! March 2022 - Kris was awarded a Robert C. and Sandra Connor Endowed Faculty Fellowship for high quality teaching, research and service. March 2022 - congrats to Nathaniel for his recent article in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The article can be found here as well as a blog post published by the journal here. July 2021 - When it rains, it pours. We're very excited to welcome another postdoc to the lab, Dr Brent Newman. July 2021 - We're very excited to welcome postdoctoral researcher, Dr Tamika Lunn, to the lab. April 2021 - Congratulations to undergraduate lab members Sydney Darling and Aaron Norris who successfully defended their honors theses. We will miss them and wish them all the best for the future! March 2021 - Big congratulations to Reilly Jackson and Nathaniel Mull for successfully completing and passing their doctoral candidacy exams this month! July 2020 - Huge congrats to PhD student Reilly Jackson who was awarded a Sturgis Fellowship to support her research on bats in Kenya! April 2020 - The first official publication from the lab is out (see publications page). This work, led by Nathaniel Mull, reviewed the ecology of rodent-borne American hantaviruses. Great work, Than! April 2020 - Congratulations to undergraduate student and lab member Houston Lamb who successfully defended his honors thesis. Houston made a field guide to rodents in Arkansas. March 2020 - Kristian was invited to present the keynote address on "Emerging Infectious Diseases" during the 5th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Chapter of The Wildlife Society. January 2020 - We welcomed a new PhD student, Shannon Kitchen, who will be working on the NSF vole fever project. August 2019 - Our first graduate students, Reilly Jackson and Nathaniel Mull, joined the lab and began their doctoral degrees at UArk. Reilly will be working on disease dynamics of bat-borne pathogens in Africa and Nathaniel will be identifying diseases in rodent communities of Arkansas. July 2019 - Thrilled to receive NSF EEID funding!! February 2019 - Our group website is live - we hope you enjoy it!! July 2018 - Kristian is excited to be joining the editorial board of Proceedings of the Royal Society B as an Associate Editor. See here for a blog post about his research and motivations. |
