Michael H. Cortez


I am a theoretical ecologist who develops mathematical models to explain ecological, evolutionary, and epidemiological patterns. My primary goals are to understand how the direct and indirect interactions between species shape the population-level dynamics of communities and how those effects are influenced by intraspecific and interspecific variation in species’ traits.

The three main research themes in my group are (i) the population-level effects of adaptive intraspecific variation, (ii) the epidemiological dynamics of multiple-host-multiple-pathogen communities, and (C) the context-dependent responses to environmental change. The work in my group involves a combination of theory development, numerical simulation, and comparing model predictions with empirical data. Much of my work is done in collaboration with empiricists.

About me: I am an associate professor in the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Mathematics. I received my B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Hope College in 2005 and my Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell Univeristy in 2011. I then did a postdoc in the School of Biology at Georgia Institute of Technology, part of which was supported by an NSF postdoc fellowship. From 2014-2018 I was an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Utah State University. I joined the Biology faculty at FSU in 2014.


I am currently looking for graduate students and postdocs to join my group. Please see the Opportunities page for details.



Contact Information

Department of Biological Science
Florida State University
319 Stadium Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32306

Office: King 4007
Phone: (850) 645-8692
E-mail: cortez[at]bio.fsu.edu