Giulio De Leo
Professor of Oceans, of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy of Biology
Department:
Oceans
Department of Earth System Science
Ph.D., University of Parma & University of Ferrara, Ecology (1993)
B.E. & M.Sc., Politecnico di Milano, Civil and Environmental Engineering (1989)

I am a theoretical ecologist by formation, I am generally interested in investigating factors and processes driving the dynamics of natural and harvested populations and in understanding how to use this knowledge to inform practical management.
In recent years I have been particularly interested in investigating factors and processes that provide resilience of natural or managed population to natural and anthropogenic stressors, environmental shocks and climate change. I study resilience from two very different points of view: on the one hand, I have focused my attention on populations that prove to be resilient despite our effort to control or eradicate them, namely parasitic and infectious diseases. On the other hand, I have been working extensively to understand how to increase resilience of population of commercial or conservation interest to extensive harvesting, environmental shocks, climate change and land use change.
I have been working on a number of theoretical and applied problems ranging from the conservation of the European eel to the sustainable management of the abalone fishery in Baja California in the face of climate change, the biocontrol of schistososmiasis in west Africa and the relationship between resource exploitation, infectious diseases and poverty traps.
In the last five years, I focused most of my effort on building the Program for Disease Ecology Health and the Environment as a pillar of Human and Planetary Health at Stanford University, with the ultimate goal of discovering novel ecological solutions that can improve human wellbeing and the health of the environment that underpins it.
In recent years I have been particularly interested in investigating factors and processes that provide resilience of natural or managed population to natural and anthropogenic stressors, environmental shocks and climate change. I study resilience from two very different points of view: on the one hand, I have focused my attention on populations that prove to be resilient despite our effort to control or eradicate them, namely parasitic and infectious diseases. On the other hand, I have been working extensively to understand how to increase resilience of population of commercial or conservation interest to extensive harvesting, environmental shocks, climate change and land use change.
I have been working on a number of theoretical and applied problems ranging from the conservation of the European eel to the sustainable management of the abalone fishery in Baja California in the face of climate change, the biocontrol of schistososmiasis in west Africa and the relationship between resource exploitation, infectious diseases and poverty traps.
In the last five years, I focused most of my effort on building the Program for Disease Ecology Health and the Environment as a pillar of Human and Planetary Health at Stanford University, with the ultimate goal of discovering novel ecological solutions that can improve human wellbeing and the health of the environment that underpins it.
Publications
Igoe, M., Casagrandi, R., Gatto, M., Hoover, C. M., Mari, L., Ngonghala, C. N., … de Leo, G. (2023). Reframing Optimal Control Problems for Infectious Disease Management in Low-Income Countries. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 85(4), 31.
2023
Pourtois, J. D., Tallam, K., Jones, I., Hyde, E., Chamberlin, A. J., Evans, M. V., … Garchitorena, A. (2023). Climatic, land-use and socio-economic factors can predict malaria dynamics at fine spatial scales relevant to local health actors: Evidence from rural Madagascar. PLOS Global Public Health, 3(2), e0001607.
2023
Grewelle, R. E., Perez-Saez, J., Tycko, J., Namigai, E. K., Rickards, C. G., & De Leo, G. A. (2022). Modeling the efficacy of CRISPR gene drive for snail immunity on schistosomiasis control. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 16(10), e0010894.
2022
Goodman, M. C., Carroll, G., Brodie, S., Gruss, A., Thorson, J. T., Kotwicki, S., … De Leo, G. A. (2022). Shifting fish distributions impact predation intensity in a sub-Arctic ecosystem. ECOGRAPHY.
2022
Pourtois, J. D., Provost, M. M., Micheli, F., & De Leo, G. A. (2022). Modelling the effect of habitat and fishing heterogeneity on the performance of a Total Allowable Catch-regulated fishery. ICES JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE.
2022
Smith, A., Aguilar, J. D., Boch, C., De Leo, G., Hernandez-Velasco, A., Houck, S., … Micheli, F. (2022). Rapid recovery of depleted abalone in Isla Natividad, Baja California, Mexico. ECOSPHERE, 13(3).
2022
Buck, J. C., De Leo, G. A., & Sokolow, S. H. (2020). Concomitant Immunity and Worm Senescence May Drive Schistosomiasis Epidemiological Patterns: An Eco-Evolutionary Perspective. Frontiers in Immunology, 11, 160.
2020
Wood, C. L., Sokolow, S. H., Jones, I. J., Chamberlin, A. J., Lafferty, K. D., Kuris, A. M., … De Leo, G. A. (2019). Precision mapping of snail habitat provides a powerful indicator of human schistosomiasis transmission. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
2019
Sokolow, S. H., Nova, N., Pepin, K. M., Peel, A. J., Pulliam, J. R., Manlove, K., … De Leo, G. A. (2019). Ecological interventions to prevent and manage zoonotic pathogen spillover. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 374(1782), 20180342.
2019
Lund, A. J., Sam, M. M., Sy, A. B., Sow, O. W., Ali, S., Sokolow, S. H., … De Leo, G. A. (2019). Unavoidable Risks: Local Perspectives on Water Contact Behavior and Implications for Schistosomiasis Control in an Agricultural Region of Northern Senegal. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
2019
Contact
Telephone
(831) 655-6202
Email
deleo [at] stanford.edu
External Profile
Research Interests
Research Area(s)