Ryan C Smith

Dr. Ryan Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology at Iowa State University with research and teaching responsibilities in Medical Entomology. His research interests focus on host-pathogen interactions between the mosquito vector and mosquito-borne pathogens (such as malaria parasites or arboviruses) using a multi-disciplinary approach to examine how the mosquito innate immune system limits pathogen infection.

Dr. Smith also oversees mosquito and tick surveillance for the state of Iowa through collaborations with the Iowa Department of Public Health and several local public health partners throughout the state of Iowa. Research questions include the introduction of invasive mosquito and tick species, as well as arthropod-borne disease ecology (focusing on WNV transmission).

Dr. Smith joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 2015 after completing his post-doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He received both his B.S. in Biology, and Ph.D. in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Riverside.