Mary Ann McDowell, associate professor of biological sciences and David Severson, director of the Eck Institute for Global Health, were invited speakers at a workshop on disease vectors in Recife, Brazil titled “Entomol 4 Workshop on Genetics and Molecular Biology of Insect Vectors of Tropical Diseases.”

Severson says, “only a handful of non-Brazilians were invited to speak. Several of the speakers have Notre Dame ties-- four of the Brazilian scientists spent time here in our department and a faculty member from the University of California--Davis was a graduate student here with Dr. George Craig.”

The workshop organizers say that the Entomol Workshop represents a permanent forum for discussion of topics directly or indirectly related to entomology, and molecular ecology of vectors of tropical diseases like dengue, malaria, leishmaniasis, among others. The event fosters scientific collaboration between different research groups participating, contributing to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and therefore to the improvement of human resources in Brazil.

The workshop featured 48 speakers from various institutions of education and research in Brazil (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, units of Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia and Amazonas, Federal University of Pernambuco, Federal University of Piauí, University Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, São Paulo University, and National Institute for Amazon Research), as well as guests from U.S. institutions (University of Notre Dame, National Institute of Health; and University of California Davies) and the UK (Natural History Museum of London, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Keele University), among others.