Dr. Holly Gaff is a mathematician who has stumbled into the wild world of field biology while trying to track down the right datasets to plug into her models. She and her lab use mathematical modeling and computer simulation to study infectious diseases, with a focus on ticks and tick-borne diseases. Currently, she is a faculty member in the Biology Department at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, US, and an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Holly is the graduate coordinator for the Ecological Sciences doctoral program at ODU. In addition, she recruits new undergraduate students annually to work in her lab through the Research for Undergraduates in Math and Science (RUMS) program. Holly has a hands-on leadership style and a knack for team building. Students training in her lab at Old Dominion are engaged in self-directed research projects that contribute to the broader mission of the ODU Tick Research Team, a collaboration between faculty members with broad expertise in field ecology, quantitative methods and molecular techniques.
