Chad L. Cross

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Professor in Residence, School of Public Health

Co-Director, MW CTR-IN, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core

Expertise: Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Disease ecology, Medical and veterinary entomology, Parasitology, Vector-borne diseases

Biography

Chad L. Cross is a researcher who also teaches courses for the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics housed within UNLV's School of Public Health. He has expertise on the ecology and epidemiology of parasites and vector-borne diseases — illnesses that can be transmitted directly or indirectly between animals and humans, such as Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, and West Nile virus. He also studies medical and veterinary entomology, a branch of zoology that examines the biology and control of ticks, mites, and other insects.

Prior to academia, Cross did stints with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Veterans Health Administration, and worked in private industry as a quantitative ecologist and statistician.

His research has investigated chronic and infectious diseases; used statistics to examine problems in the health, psychological, environmental, and ecological sciences, such as clinical trials and avian fatality around wind turbines; and taken him into the field to study arthropod-borne and parasitic diseases. His projects have explored topics such as PTSD in veterans, links between neurodevelopmental disorders and sports concussions, and postmortem THC levels in decedents following the legalization of recreational cannabis in Clark County, Nevada.

Education

Ph.D., Ecological Sciences (Quantitative Ecology), Old Dominion University
M.S., Computational & Applied Mathematics (Statistics), Old Dominion University
M.S., Entomology & Nematology (Medical & Veterinary), University of Florida
M.S., Counseling (Systems Theory), UNLV
B.S., Wildlife Science, Purdue University
B.S., Biological Sciences, Purdue University

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Chad L. Cross In The News

The Parade Home & Garden

It’s easy to confuse ladybugs with Asian lady beetles. Both have bright, colorful shells with black spots. Both help to brighten up your garden. And regardless of which one you encounter, you should be happy to see them outside doing what they do best—eating aphids and other unwanted bugs.

Parade

Getting ready for a vacation is one of the most exciting things there is. Planning your itinerary, picking out your outfits and packing your bags all help to put you in that fabulous out-of-office mode. But what about when you get to your destination and it’s time to unpack those bags? Well, that’s where things get a bit more complicated.

MDLinx

In 1955, a 24-year-old who worked in the forests of Trinidad and Tobago, near the Oropouche River, became the first human on record to contract the fever-inducing ‘sloth virus’ or Oropouche virus. While the virus is endemic to the Amazon basin, it is now spreading globally.

Sleepopolis

When it comes to pests, bed bugs may top the list. Between the itchy bites, the risk of secondary infections from all that scratching, and the resulting anxiety and disrupted sleep, the entire bed bug experience can be pretty miserable. Fortunately, bed bug infestations can be treated. Ahead, we’re sharing everything you’ve ever needed to know about bed bugs, including how to spot them, how to get rid of bedbugs, and most importantly, how to avoid them in the first place.