Most people never think about the deer mouse that lives in a grain bin, a farm shed, or a Palouse grassland. Disease ecologists do. Rodents are among the most important reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens on Earth. They carry orthohantaviruses, Leptospira, arenaviruses, and a growing list of bacteria and parasites that move across the boundary between wildlife, livestock, pets, and people.
Washington State University is now recruiting a highly motivated MS or PhD student to study that boundary. The Veterinary and Medical Ecology Lab is seeking a candidate to start in August 2027. The work combines field sampling in the Pacific Northwest, laboratory analysis in Pullman, and quantitative modelling inside a One Health framework. Applications of interest are due by email on 1 November 2026.
This is not a generic call for graduate students. It is a funded research position attached to a lab that studies how rodent ecology, land use, and human activity shape the risk of infectious disease.
Scholarship Summary
- Host Country: United States
- Host University: Washington State University (Pullman, Washington)
- Scholarship Type: MSC Scholarships/PhD Scholarships (funded graduate research assistantship)
- Eligible Countries: Open to qualified applicants with a bachelor’s degree; international applicants may apply subject to WSU Graduate School and English-proficiency requirements
- Scholarship Benefits: Monthly stipend starting at $2,510; at least 20 hours per week of paid research; field and laboratory training; path to a formal MS or PhD in the Multidisciplinary Program in Infectious Disease (PhD students in good standing in that program typically receive a competitive stipend, health insurance, and tuition waivers)
- Application Deadline: Email materials by 1 November 2026 (listing also notes 1 December 2026; review is rolling)
Why Rodent-Borne Diseases Belong at the Center of One Health
Rodents are the largest order of mammals. Many species thrive next to people. House mice, deer mice, voles, and other small mammals can carry pathogens with medical and veterinary importance, including orthohantaviruses, mammarenaviruses, Borrelia, Babesia, and Leptospira. Some species also accumulate environmental toxicants and can move anticoagulant rodenticides through food webs into raptors and other wildlife.
That mix of ecology and public health is not theoretical in the inland Northwest. Researchers in WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine recently reported unexpectedly high evidence of Sin Nombre virus, the hantavirus most closely linked to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, among rodents sampled in the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho. Nearly 30 percent of sampled animals showed signs of prior exposure, and about 10 percent had active infection.
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Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is uncommon, but it is severe. CDC data cited in WSU coverage note hundreds of U.S. cases since the early 1990s and a case-fatality rate around 36 percent. Washington, Oregon, and Idaho account for a meaningful share of those cases. People are often exposed in enclosed spaces contaminated with rodent urine, droppings, or nesting material.
A related WSU master’s thesis examined how landscape composition in Palouse agroecosystems—cattle operations, crop fields, and remnant natural areas—changes rodent communities and, by extension, zoonotic risk. The work reviewed drivers of spillover for hantavirus, Leptospira, Junín virus, and rodent-associated pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi and Rickettsia.
The new graduate position sits in that same scientific landscape: how hosts, habitats, people, and pathogens interact, and what interventions can reduce risk.
What the Position Actually Involves
The Veterinary and Medical Ecology Lab is recruiting one MS or PhD student interested in the epidemiology and ecology of rodent-borne diseases. The successful candidate will join a growing team of veterinary and undergraduate researchers and work across three settings:
- Field work in the Pacific Northwest
- Laboratory work in Pullman, Washington
- Quantitative modelling
The lab’s published research agenda is unusually clear. Faculty and students ask four linked questions: what are the epidemiological patterns of medically and veterinarily important pathogens and toxicants; how do socio-ecological factors shape those patterns in space and time; how does variation in host and vector traits influence spread; and which evidence-based interventions can reduce hazard and disease. The group focuses on rodent systems but remains open to related interfaces.
That combination matters for career training. Students who can trap and sample, run laboratory assays, and then build models are rare. Employers in academia, government laboratories, One Health agencies, and industry look for exactly that mix.
Who Leads the Lab
The contact for this opening is Dr. Andreas Eleftheriou, assistant professor in Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology. He is a veterinary scientist board-certified in veterinary preventive medicine. His path ran from small-animal practice to a PhD in infectious disease ecology and a residency in veterinary public health. His work has examined rodent- and tick-borne systems, heavy metals such as lead and mercury, the invasive Asian longhorned tick in the United States, and the human dimensions of pathogen and toxicant risk.
Lab research page: Veterinary Medical Ecology Lab – Research Program
Faculty introduction: Welcome Dr. Andreas Eleftheriou
WSU’s broader infectious-disease environment is also an asset. The College of Veterinary Medicine houses the Multidisciplinary Program in Infectious Disease, the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, and close ties to the USDA-ARS Animal Disease Research Unit and the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. Graduate students in the infectious-disease programs work in a collaborative setting that spans immunology, host–pathogen biology, and population-level disease.
Funding, Hours, and What “Supported” Means Here
The posted position is paid. Salary starts at $2,510 per month for at least 20 hours per week. The start window is August 2027, with the listing noting a start before 1 September 2027. A bachelor’s degree is required. No prior experience is required, which makes the opening accessible to strong recent graduates as well as applicants with field or laboratory backgrounds.
Readers should treat this as a funded graduate research opportunity rather than a stand-alone tuition-only scholarship. After an informal selection step, the successful candidate must submit a formal application through the Multidisciplinary Program in Infectious Disease in the College of Veterinary Medicine. That program states that PhD students in good standing are supported by a competitive annual stipend, health insurance, and tuition waivers, with expectations of research or teaching assistance. Scholarships through the Graduate School and the college may also be available.
The formal program’s usual deadline is 1 December, with the cycle opening in July. GRE scores are not required. Typical materials include transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a CV, a personal statement, and English-proficiency scores where applicable. Minimum GPA guidance on the program page is 3.0. International applicants should review current WSU Graduate School English-language requirements.
In other words, this opening has two gates: first impress the lab by email, then complete the university application if invited.
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Who should apply for One Health Graduate Program At Washington State University
The advertisement asks for a student who is highly motivated, ambitious, and organized. That language is doing real work. Field seasons in the Palouse and the broader Pacific Northwest are physically and logistically demanding. Laboratory pipelines require careful sample handling. Modelling rewards patience and statistical discipline. A candidate who enjoys only one of those three will struggle. A candidate who wants all three will fit.
Useful backgrounds include biology, ecology, wildlife science, epidemiology, microbiology, veterinary science, public health, biostatistics, or a closely related field. Prior rodent trapping, GIS, R or Python, molecular diagnostics, or One Health coursework helps but is not required. Curiosity about how landscapes and human behavior change infection risk is essential.
The position will appeal to applicants who want to work on:
- Zoonotic spillover and reservoir ecology
- Agroecosystems and land-use change
- Hantavirus and other rodent-borne pathogens
- One Health surveillance and intervention design
- Quantitative ecology and epidemiological modelling
For context on the wider field, see the CDC pages on hantavirus and One Health. WSU’s own coverage of regional hantavirus findings is available from the Office of Research.
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How to Apply for One Health Graduate Program At Washington State University, Step by Step
Do not start with the generic university portal. The lab wants a direct email first.
Email Andreas Eleftheriou at andreas.eleftheriou@wsu.edu by 1 November 2026. Use the exact subject line:
Graduate Application Rodent Disease
Attach or include:
- A statement of research interests, relevant experience, and career goals
- Unofficial academic transcripts
- A CV with contact information for three professional or academic references
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Top candidates will be contacted by email for further guidance. The successful candidate will then be asked to submit a formal application through the Multidisciplinary Program in Infectious Disease.
Write the statement as a scientific argument, not a diary. Explain why rodent-borne systems interest you, what skills you already have, what you still need to learn, and how an MS or PhD at WSU advances a specific career path: academic research, veterinary public health, wildlife health, outbreak response, or government science. Name the methods you want to grow—mark-recapture, pathogen diagnostics, spatial models, or intervention evaluation—and connect them to Pacific Northwest landscapes.
Because review is rolling, earlier complete packets are better than last-day packets.
Why Pullman and the Palouse are the Right Classroom
Pullman is a small college town on the Washington–Idaho line. That is a feature, not a drawback, for this project. The Palouse is a working agricultural landscape with crop fields, livestock operations, remnant grasslands, and a rodent community that lives in all three. Students can move from a farm edge to a laboratory bench in the same week. That proximity is difficult to replicate in a large coastal city.
WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine also gives students access to faculty working on vector-borne disease, molecular ecology of zoonotic pathogens, global animal health, and diagnostic surveillance. Nearby collaborators and facilities make it possible to place a single rodent project inside a much larger One Health conversation.
Practical Advice Before You Hit Send
- Read the lab research page before you write. Echo the four research questions only if you can add a concrete idea of your own.
- Show, do not claim, organization. A clean CV, labeled file names, and a statement that answers the three requested points will do more than adjectives.
- If you are an international applicant, check visa and English-proficiency rules on the WSU Graduate School site at the same time you draft the email. Do not wait until you are invited to the formal application.
- Treat the 1 November email deadline as the real deadline, even though the job board also lists 1 December 2026.
- Keep a copy of the official posting: jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id=118881.
The larger stake
Emerging infections rarely begin in a vacuum. They begin in contact zones: a grain store, a barn, a suburban shed, a changing grassland. Rodents occupy those zones better than almost any other mammal. Training one more scientist who can measure that contact, model it, and translate the result into prevention is a public-health investment, not only a student opportunity.
If that problem set is the one you want to spend the next two to five years on, this is a rare, paid opening with a defined mentor, a defined landscape, and a defined start date. Prepare the statement. Gather the transcripts. Email the lab by 1 November 2026.
Official listing: Graduate Opportunity in Rodent-borne Infectious Disease Ecology
Program overview: PhD in Biomedical Sciences – Multidisciplinary Program in Infectious Disease
Application guidance: Apply to the Biomedical Sciences Program