Rate My Professor Roman Biek

Professor Roman Biek holds the position of Professor of Disease Ecology and Molecular Epidemiology in the School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow, where he also serves as Director of Research for Evolution & Diversity and Deputy Head of School. His research centers on molecular ecology and evolution, with a particular emphasis on infectious disease dynamics in wild and domestic animal populations, focusing on viral and bacterial pathogens. Biek employs genomic, epidemiological, and ecological methods to study pathogen evolution, host-pathogen interactions, spatial disease spread, and zoonotic risks, contributing to fields such as disease ecology and epidemiology. His investigations include tick-borne diseases like Lyme borreliosis, rabies phylodynamics, anthrax transmission in endemic areas, and bluetongue virus reassortment.

Biek obtained his PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2004, supervised by Professor Mary Poss, following a Dipl. Biol. (first class) from Philipps University Marburg, Germany. He conducted postdoctoral research at Emory University from 2004 to 2007 with Professor Leslie A. Real before joining the University of Glasgow in 2007 as Kelvin Smith Fellow in Biodiversity Management, advancing to Lecturer (2010-2013), Senior Lecturer (2013-2016), Reader, and Professor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and previously held the Kelvin Smith Fellowship. Biek's scholarship has garnered over 8,000 citations. Notable publications include 'A virus reveals population structure and recent demographic history of its carnivore host' (Science, 2006), 'Emergence of Lyme disease on treeless islands in Scotland, UK' (Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2021), 'Integrating contact tracing and whole-genome sequencing to track the elimination of dog-mediated rabies' (eLife, 2023), 'Population genomics of Bacillus anthracis from an anthrax hyperendemic area' (Microbial Genomics, 2022), and 'Disentangling complex disease ecology networks' (Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, 2026).