Welcome! I’m Paradyse Blackwood, a recent Ph.D. graduate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow from Purdue University in the Department of Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. At Purdue, I worked with Dr. Catherine Searle. I am a trained herpetologist with a disease ecology, molecular biology, and ecotoxicology background. My dissertation work focuses on how environmental changes including climate change and pollution interact and affect disease dynamics in amphibians in freshwater systems in the Midwest USA. Specifically, I'm interested in how these environmental stressors are affecting larval amphibian hosts and their parasites (Trematode parasites & Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). In general, I am interested in how the changing environment will affect organisms' health, morphology, and their interactions. In addition, I am devoted to making science accessible through outreach and community engagement.