Mr. Alex Potter is managing an interactive disease vector mapping website (vectormap.si.edu) while also curating specimens of the National arthropod collections housed at the Smithsonian Institution (NMNH). This team preserves valuable data associated with museum specimens, scientific literature, and ongoing field collections to inform vector borne disease risk mitigation strategies.
Mr. Potter currently provides technical assistance for the reorganization and reclassification of the United States National Museum (USNM) Culicoides collection as well as the larger Ceratopogonidae family. He began as a College Qualified Leaders (CQL) student in the summer of 2017, returning to WRBU after his graduation from Kalamazoo College in 2018, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology.
Mr. Potter’s senior thesis research (completed at WRBU), focused on climate change and arbovirus dynamics. His recent research interests include ecological niche modeling, data curation, the digitization of museum specimens, and mapping with GIS.
Selected Publications:
Pecor DB, Foley DH, Potter A. Mosquito Surveillance Conducted by US Military Personnel in the Aftermath of the Nuclear Explosion at Nagasaki, Japan, 1945. US Army Medical Department Journal. 2018;(1-18): 8-13.
Laporta GZ, Potter AM, Oliveira JFA, Bourke BP, Pecor DB, Linton YM. Global Distribution of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in a Climate Change Scenario of Regional Rivalry. Insects. 2023; 14(1): 49
Celone M, Pecor DB, Potter A, Richardson A, Dunford J, Pollett S. An Ecological Niche Model to Predict the Geographic Distribution of Haemagogus janthinomys, Dyar, 1921 a Yellow Fever and Mayaro Virus Vector, in South America. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2022; 16(7): e0010564
