Email
ccollins@wpi.edu
Office
Goddard Hall, 203B
Education
B.S. Biology, Houghton College, 2002
M.S. Immunology and Infectious Disease, Albany Medical College, 2006
PhD. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, SUNY Albany & NY State Museum, 2011

Chris’ teaching focus is biodiversity, ecology, anatomy and physiology. He is excited to teach at WPI, because he believes project-based learning is the most effective and most fun way, to learn. He also believes students learn best by doing, and his goal is to guide students through an exploration of each subject he teaches. One of his interests is service learning, which allows students to learn by engaging in projects that serve their community. Past projects have included river and stream water quality analysis, and biodiversity surveys of local parks and natural areas. In his anatomy and physiology courses, students use instrumentation to collect data on heart, brain, and muscle function, and design their own experiments.

Research interests: 

Chris’ research focus is tick-borne diseases, and disease ecology.  He is particularly interested in the effects of human activity on the ecology and life cycles of disease hosts such as mice, ticks, and mosquitos. He is also interested in methods for monitoring wildlife abundance and diversity using passive methods such as motion activated cameras, tracking, and environmental DNA analysis.