Madelyn Mangan
She/Her
I am trans and I am a disease ecologist.//
I am a PhD candidate at Griffith University in Australia, where I study the mechanisms by which amphibian species recover from the epidemic declines caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. I certainly wouldn’t call myself a herpetologist, but I must admit that frogs are pretty darn cool 🙂
After many years in the closet, I finally started transitioning during the middle of my PhD. I initially was scared that undertaking a PhD and a gender transition simultaneously would be too much to handle, but it turns out that life was 1000% easier once I could finally be myself 🙂
I completed my masters degree at Truman State in the USA studying ecology and behaviour of the lone star tick, where I first got introduced to the field of disease ecology. I love wildlife conservation dearly, and I’m especially interested in helping species which are threatened by invasive pathogens. While I feel like my interests are constantly evolving, I’ve enjoyed using mathematical modelling and genomic tools during my PhD to gain key insights into ecological systems which might not be readily apparent in classical field studies. Ecology rocks!