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
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
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
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
Hoover, C. M., Sokolow, S. H., Kemp, J., Sanchirico, J. N., Lund, A. J., Jones, I. J., … De Leo, G. A. (2019). Modelled effects of prawn aquaculture on poverty alleviation and schistosomiasis control. NATURE SUSTAINABILITY, 2(7), 611–20.
2019
Maier, T., Wheeler, N. J., Namigai, E. K., Tycko, J., Grewelle, R. E., Woldeamanuel, Y., … Reinhard-Rupp, J. (2019). Gene drives for schistosomiasis transmission control. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 13(12), e0007833.
2019
Lund, A., Rehkopf, D., Sokolow, S., Jouanard, N., Sam, M. M., Fall, A., … Lopez-Carr, D. (2019). THE ROLE OF IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE IN SCHISTOSOMIASIS RISK IN A DAMMED LANDSCAPE IN WEST AFRICA. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE, 101, 11.
2019
Castro, M. C., Baeza, A., Codeco, C. T., Cucunuba, Z. M., Dal'Asta, A. P., De Leo, G. A., … Santos-Vega, M. (2019). Development, environmental degradation, and disease spread in the Brazilian Amazon. PLoS Biology, 17(11), e3000526.
2019
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
Jones, I., Lund, A., Riveau, G., Jouanard, N., Ndione, R. A., Sokolow, S. H., & De Leo, G. A. (2018). Ecological control of schistosomiasis in Sub-Saharan Africa: restoration of predator-prey dynamics to reduce transmission. ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES: PATHOGEN CONTROL AND PUBLIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES, 236–51.
2018
Buck, J., De Leo, G., Rosental, B., & Sokolow, S. (2018). AN ECO-EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON SCHISTOSOMIASIS. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE, 99(4), 418.
2018
Contact
Telephone
(831) 655-6202
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External Profile
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