My name is Flavia Girao, I am a veterinarian and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Mississippi State University.  I am looking for a job or postdoctoral position in the Parasitology and Epidemiology field. I expect to receive my doctorate in July 2012. My Ph.D. publications are underway and I foresee four more publications in the next year.

I am highly motivated veterinarian researcher and I have been working in vector-borne research since 2004. I worked for three years with polymorphism analyses of populations of the bovine tick,Rhipicephalus microplus, from throughout South America in Brazil receiving twice a competitive one-year undergraduate research initiation scholarship.

My Ph.D. research relates to aspects of population ecology and epidemiology of the Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, and the human pathogen it may carry, Rickettsia parkeri, and another emerging spotted fever group rickettsiae of unknown pathogenicity to humans, “Candidatus Rickettsia andeanae”. This work comprises studies of prevalence and population heterogeneity, tick anatomy, histology and ultrastructure as well as isolation of bacteria in culture, all relating to disease transmissibility. Moreover, my experience here has exposed me to various animal models and other experimental procedures related to vector-borne disease research.

A copy of my curriculum vitae is attached and the following persons will be happy to provide you with letters of recommendation upon request: Dr. Andrea Varela-Stokes (PhD advisor, stokes@cvm.msstate.edu); Dr. Jerome Goddard (Minor advisor, jgoddard@entomology.msstate.edu) and Dr. Christopher Paddock (Mentor, cdp9@cdc.gov).

I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Flavia Girao