John Drake is a Regents Professor of Ecology at the Odum School of Ecology and Director of the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (CEID) at the University of Georgia. His research combines mathematical modeling and data analysis to study the dynamics and spread of invasive species and infections diseases. He has applied spatial interaction and compartmental models to a wide range of systems, including the spread of White-nose syndrome in North American bats, the 2013–2015 West African Ebola epidemic, the evolutionary dynamics of influenza, and the spread of zebra mussels.