Chad L. Cross

Associate 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

Las Vegas Weekly
"What is the most dangerous animal in the world?” The answer might surprise you, according to Chad Cross and Louisa Messenger, professors with the UNLV School of Public Health.
Popular Science
Tick season is not only starting sooner—it’s becoming a year-round event. While April through September are usually the most active months, the pesky eight-legged parasites are biting people and animals much earlier in the year than expected. The increasing tick bites are leading to a rise in a variety of tick-borne diseases, including some that were previously uncommon.

Articles Featuring Chad L. Cross

Students at Pida Plaza on the first day of classes (Josh Hawkins, UNLV).
Campus News | September 1, 2023

A roundup of prominent news stories highlighting university pride, research, and community collaboration.

Daniel Benyshek and Sharon Young
Campus News | November 3, 2016

First clinical study of its kind finds no benefit for women who eat their placenta as a source of needed iron after giving birth.