Principal Investigator
Kathryn A. Hanley PhD
For her entire career, Dr. Kathryn A. Hanley has been fascinated by the interactions between hosts and pathogens, and how these interactions shape pathogen transmission and virulence. Kathy graduated magna cum laude with a major in Biology from Amherst College, and she completed her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California, San Diego. She conducted post-doctoral research at the University of California, Davis, the University of Maryland, and the National Institutes of Health, where she participated in the development of the NIH dengue virus vaccine (now called the Butantan vaccine).
Since joining New Mexico State University in 2004, her lab has been at the forefront of research on the ecology, evolution and control of arthropod-borne and zoonotic viruses, including dengue, Zika, yellow fever, West Nile, chikungunya, vesicular stomatitis and Sin Nombre. She is currently a Regents Professor of Biology at NMSU and a Visiting Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. She is a past President of the Rio Grande branch of the American Society for Microbiology and a past Chair of the American Committee on Arthropod-Borne viruses (ACAV). She is the recipient of the ACAV Dalrymple-Young award for research excellence and the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences award for excellence in graduate student mentorship. In 2026 she was named the Conference USA Professor of the Year.
She and her husband Tim are the exceedingly proud parents of Nick and Maddie Wright. When she isn’t working, she spends her time spoiling her rescue dogs, hunting turkeys, and reading her way through the local bookstore.