Post-Doctoral Fellows
The Kutz Research Group often has one or more Post-Doctoral Fellows who have their own research projects and help the entire group in a variety of ways.
Fabien Mavrot
Fabien is a Swiss veterinarian with a strong interest in wildlife and epidemiology. He wrote his veterinary thesis on infectious keratoconjunctivitis in Alpine Ibex and Chamois at the Center for Fish and Wildlife Health at the University of Bern and subsequently completed a PhD on gastro-intestinal parasites of domestic ruminants at the Section for Veterinary Epidemiology of the University of Zürich. Fabien is currently employed as a postdoc at the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health of the University of Calgary. His project focus on improving our understanding of muskox health in the Canadian Arctic. he will use a participatory approach combined with regression analysis to gain insight on the epidemiological processes driving muskox population. In particular, he is interested in pathogens that might be new to the Arctic, such as the bacteria Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae or expanding their range such as the lungworm Umingmakstrongylus pallikuukensis.
Eleanor Dickinson
Eleanor is a Postdoctoral Research Associate from the UK. Her research interests focus on the interactions between host movement and their parasites, and how these relationships may shift with climate change. She recently completed her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast, working on the use of biologging tools to measure movement and energy expenditure as well as predicting the transmission of gastrointestinal parasites in Alpine ibex. Her work will focus on the relationship between host body condition and parasite infection, to enable a better understanding of how parasites impact ungulate hosts in the Arctic. In her free time Eleanor loves to backpack, ski, horse ride and swim.
Rachele Vada
Rachele Vada is a veterinarian from Turin, Italy. Raised at the foot of the Western Alps, she earned her veterinary degree from the University of Turin. Driven by a passion for wildlife, she pursued a Master’s in Wildlife Research in Spain, where she completed a thesis on the distribution of the invasive American mink in Europe. She later returned to the University of Turin for her PhD, focusing on the abundance of ticks and tick-borne diseases in relation to wildlife presence and camera trap data. Her research expanded to explore the transmission interface of tick-borne pathogens, incorporating humans and multiple wild hosts. During her PhD, Rachele gained international experience through several collaborative projects, including placements at the headquarters of the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) in Paris, in the tropical forests of Cameroon, and at Lancaster University in the UK. She also volunteered with Veterinarians Without Borders in Guinea-Bissau. In June 2025, she began a postdoctoral position under Dr. Susan Kutz's supervision, studying drivers and impacts of filarioid nematode (such as Setaria and Onchocerca) outbreaks in barrenground caribou populations. In her free time, she loves to hike, rock climb, glacier travel, scramble and ski.
Shruti Madhusudan
Shruti Madhusudan is a veterinarian whose upbringing across diverse regions fostered an early interest in the ecological and sociocultural forces shaping human–environment relationships. She completed a BSc in Zoology at the University of Guelph, where she developed a keen interest in conservation medicine and disease ecology. As an undergraduate, she studied bacterial diseases in coral reefs, the spatial distribution and comorbidity of viral and parasitic infections in raccoons, Johne’s disease in dairy cattle, and parasite burden in muskox in collaboration with the University of Calgary. Shruti went on to earn a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Edinburgh, where she combined clinical training in wildlife health with research on tick-borne disease dynamics and the ecology of pathogens in urban rodent populations. After several years in companion animal practice, Shruti returned to wildlife health research and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Kutz Research Group. Her work focuses on evaluating indicators of caribou health to inform long-term monitoring and management strategies for their conservation. Broadly, Shruti is interested in applying principles of disease ecology to support sustainable conservation and improve the health of wildlife, people, and ecosystems. Her spare time is devoted to meandering in nature and making music/art.
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