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Joseph Mihaljevic

TitleAssistant Professor
Faculty RankAssistant Professor
InstitutionNorthern Arizona University
DepartmentInformatics, Computing & Cyber Systems
AddressPO Box 5693
Flagstaff AZ 86011
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0003-2320-5773 Additional info
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse education and training
    Washington University, St Louis, MOBS05/2010Biology
    University of Colorado, Boulder, COPhD12/2014Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

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    Dr. Mihaljevic is an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University’s School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS), and he is an affiliate researcher at NAU’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute. Research in our lab integrates across disciplines to understand the dominant drivers of pathogen transmission. While we are strongly grounded in epidemiological theory, we also develop statistical computing techniques to rigorously link our models with data that we collect from the lab, from the field, and from previously published research. We seek to constantly motivate our fieldwork and modeling with real-world issues of public health, wildlife conservation, and pest control.

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    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Xia S, Arsala D, Gschwend A, Koval W, Atlas J, Han S, Chen J, Faulere L, Li M, Mihaljevic J, Sanchez DJ, Yu GR, Tamarina N, VanKuren N, Allesina S, Long M. Analysis of the impact of gene evolution on reproductive effects reveals prevalent sexual and germline-soma conflicts. Nat Ecol Evol. 2026 May 01. PMID: 42067636.
      Citations:    
    2. Oshinubi K, Chen Y, Doerry E, Gel ES, Hepp C, Lant T, Mehrotra S, Sabo S, Mihaljevic J. A systematic review of spatial epidemiological modeling approaches applied during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Public Health. 2026 Apr 15. PMID: 41987119.
      Citations:    
    3. Oshinubi K, Hepp CM, Chen Y, Doerry E, Busser N, Townsend J, Will J, Ruberto I, Kretschmer M, Mihaljevic J. Accounting for spatial variation in weather factors predicts spatial variations in Culex quinquefasciatus abundance in the Desert Southwest. Parasit Vectors. 2026 Mar 11; 19(1). PMID: 41814404.
      Citations:    
    4. Carlino A, Loeher M, P?ez DJ, Hershberger P, Wolf N, Mihaljevic J. Stochastic within-host dynamics and climate-sensitive traits generate predictable patterns of variation in disease outcomes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2026 Mar 05; 381(1945). PMID: 41791751.
      Citations:    
    5. Drennan A, Covington J, Han D, Attilio A, Lee J, Posner R, Doerry E, Mihaljevic J, Chen Y. Estimating dynamic transmission rates with a Black-Karasinski process in stochastic SIHR models using particle MCMC. Physica A. 2026 Feb 15; 684. PMID: 41877872.
      Citations:    
    6. Oshinubi K, Hepp CM, Chen Y, Doerry E, Busser N, Townsend J, Will J, Ruberto I, Kretschmer M, Mihaljevic J. Accounting for spatial variation in climatic factors predicts spatial variations in mosquito abundance in the desert southwest. Res Sq. 2025 Oct 16. PMID: 41282113.
      Citations:    
    7. Oshinubi K, Chen Y, Doerry E, Gel ES, Hepp C, Lant T, Mehrotra S, Sabo S, Mihaljevic J. A Systematic Review of Spatial Epidemiological Modeling Approaches Applied During the COVID-19 Pandemic. medRxiv. 2025 Sep 25. PMID: 41040689.
      Citations:    
    8. Drennan A, Covington J, Han D, Attilio A, Lee J, Posner R, Doerry E, Mihaljevic J, Chen Y. Estimating dynamic transmission rates with a Black-Karasinski process in stochastic SIHR models using particle MCMC. ArXiv. 2025 May 30. PMID: 40492253.
      Citations:    
    9. Mihaljevic JR, P?ez DJ. Systematic shifts in the variation among host individuals must be considered in climate-disease theory. Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Feb; 292(2040):20242515. PMID: 39904391.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Animals
    10. Pearson T, Kramer S, Panisello Yag?e D, Nangkuu E, Medina-Rodriguez S, Wood C, Hepp C, Camplain R, Mihaljevic J, Milner T. Staphylococcus aureus infection disparities among Hispanics and non-Hispanics in Yuma, Arizona. Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2024; 4(1):e135. PMID: 39346659.
      Citations:    
    11. Mihaljevic JR, Chief C, Malik M, Oshinubi K, Doerry E, Gel E, Hepp C, Lant T, Mehrotra S, Sabo S. An inaugural forum on epidemiological modeling for public health stakeholders in Arizona. Front Public Health. 2024; 12:1357908. PMID: 38883190.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:HumansPHPublic Health
    12. Dey S, Kurbanzade AK, Gel ES, Mihaljevic J, Mehrotra S. Optimization Modeling for Pandemic Vaccine Supply Chain Management: A Review and Future Research Opportunities. Nav Res Logist. 2024 Oct; 71(7):976-1016. PMID: 39309669.
      Citations:    
    13. Porter WT, Gade L, Montfort P, Mihaljevic JR, Bowers JR, Willman A, Klimowski BA, LaFleur BJ, Sunenshine RH, Collins J, Adame G, Brady S, Komatsu KK, Williams S, Toda M, Chiller T, Litvintseva AP, Engelthaler DM. Understanding the exposure risk of aerosolized Coccidioides in a Valley fever endemic metropolis. Sci Rep. 2024 01 15; 14(1):1311. PMID: 38225347.
      Citations: 4     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    14. Sieben AJ, Mihaljevic JR, Shoemaker LG. Quantifying mechanisms of coexistence in disease ecology. Ecology. 2022 12; 103(12):e3819. PMID: 35855596.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    15. Ratnavale S, Hepp C, Doerry E, Mihaljevic JR. A sliding window approach to optimize the time-varying parameters of a spatially-explicit and stochastic model of COVID-19. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2022; 2(9):e0001058. PMID: 36962667.
      Citations:    
    16. Mihaljevic JR, Borkovec S, Ratnavale S, Hocking TD, Banister KE, Eppinger JE, Hepp C, Doerry E. SPARSEMODr: Rapidly simulate spatially explicit and stochastic models of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Biol Methods Protoc. 2022; 7(1):bpac022. PMID: 36157711.
      Citations:    
    17. Kollath DR, Mihaljevic JR, Barker BM. PM10 and Other Climatic Variables Are Important Predictors of Seasonal Variability of Coccidioidomycosis in Arizona. Microbiol Spectr. 2022 04 27; 10(2):e0148321. PMID: 35319247.
      Citations: 10     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    18. Dwyer G, Mihaljevic JR, Dukic V. Can Eco-Evo Theory Explain Population Cycles in the Field? Am Nat. 2022 01; 199(1):108-125. PMID: 34978965.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    19. Miller E, Barragan V, Chiriboga J, Weddell C, Luna L, Jim?nez DJ, Aleman J, Mihaljevic JR, Olivas S, Marks J, Izurieta R, Nieto N, Keim P, Trueba G, Caporaso JG, Pearson T. Leptospira in river and soil in a highly endemic area of Ecuador. BMC Microbiol. 2021 01 07; 21(1):17. PMID: 33413126.
      Citations: 14     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCellsPHPublic Health
    20. Porter WT, Barrand ZA, Wachara J, DaVall K, Mihaljevic JR, Pearson T, Salkeld DJ, Nieto NC. Predicting the current and future distribution of the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus, across the Western US using citizen science collections. PLoS One. 2021; 16(1):e0244754. PMID: 33400719.
      Citations: 15     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsPHPublic Health
    21. Polivka CM, Mihaljevic JR, Dwyer G. Use of a mechanistic growth model in evaluating post-restoration habitat quality for juvenile salmonids. PLoS One. 2020; 15(6):e0234072. PMID: 32579548.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Animals
    22. Mihaljevic JR, Polivka CM, Mehmel CJ, Li C, Dukic V, Dwyer G. An Empirical Test of the Role of Small-Scale Transmission in Large-Scale Disease Dynamics. Am Nat. 2020 04; 195(4):616-635. PMID: 32216670.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCellsPHPublic Health
    23. Brown JJ, Mihaljevic JR, Des Marteaux L, Hrcek J. Metacommunity theory for transmission of heritable symbionts within insect communities. Ecol Evol. 2020 Feb; 10(3):1703-1721. PMID: 32076545.
      Citations:    
    24. Wilber MQ, Jani AJ, Mihaljevic JR, Briggs CJ. Fungal infection alters the selection, dispersal and drift processes structuring the amphibian skin microbiome. Ecol Lett. 2020 Jan; 23(1):88-98. PMID: 31637835.
      Citations: 5     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    25. Ranjeva SL, Mihaljevic JR, Joseph MB, Giuliano AR, Dwyer G. Untangling the dynamics of persistence and colonization in microbial communities. ISME J. 2019 12; 13(12):2998-3010. PMID: 31444482.
      Citations: 3     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    26. Jadin RC, Mihaljevic JR, Orlofske SA. Do New World pitvipers "scale-down" at high elevations? Macroecological patterns of scale characters and body size. Ecol Evol. 2019 Aug; 9(16):9362-9375. PMID: 31463027.
      Citations:    
    27. Mihaljevic JR, Greer AL, Brunner JL. Evaluating the Within-Host Dynamics of Ranavirus Infection with Mechanistic Disease Models and Experimental Data. Viruses. 2019 04 27; 11(5). PMID: 31035560.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    28. Mihaljevic JR, Hoverman JT, Johnson PTJ. Co-exposure to multiple ranavirus types enhances viral infectivity and replication in a larval amphibian system. Dis Aquat Organ. 2018 Dec 11; 132(1):23-35. PMID: 30530928.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    29. Mihaljevic JR, Hoye BJ, Johnson PTJ. Parasite metacommunities: Evaluating the roles of host community composition and environmental gradients in structuring symbiont communities within amphibians. J Anim Ecol. 2018 03; 87(2):354-368. PMID: 28795407.
      Citations: 7     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    30. Mihaljevic JR, Joseph MB, Johnson PT. Using multispecies occupancy models to improve the characterization and understanding of metacommunity structure. Ecology. 2015 Jul; 96(7):1783-92. PMID: 26378301.
      Citations: 10     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    31. Mihaljevic JR, Joseph MB, Orlofske SA, Paull SH. The scaling of host density with richness affects the direction, shape, and detectability of diversity-disease relationships. PLoS One. 2014; 9(5):e97812. PMID: 24849581.
      Citations: 25     Fields:    
    32. Joseph MB, Mihaljevic JR, Orlofske SA, Paull SH. Does life history mediate changing disease risk when communities disassemble? Ecol Lett. 2013 Nov; 16(11):1405-12. PMID: 24138175.
      Citations: 30     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    33. Joseph MB, Mihaljevic JR, Arellano AL, Kueneman JG, Preston DL, Cross PC, Johnson PTJ. Taming wildlife disease: bridging the gap between science and management. J Appl Ecol. 2013 Jun; 50(3):702-712. PMID: 32336775.
      Citations:    
    34. Hoverman JT, Mihaljevic JR, Richgels KL, Kerby JL, Johnson PT. Widespread co-occurrence of virulent pathogens within California amphibian communities. Ecohealth. 2012 Sep; 9(3):288-92. PMID: 22766887.
      Citations: 15     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    35. Burkle LA, Mihaljevic JR, Smith KG. Effects of an invasive plant transcend ecosystem boundaries through a dragonfly-mediated trophic pathway. Oecologia. 2012 Dec; 170(4):1045-52. PMID: 22622872.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    36. Mihaljevic JR. Linking metacommunity theory and symbiont evolutionary ecology. Trends Ecol Evol. 2012 Jun; 27(6):323-9. PMID: 22341499.
      Citations: 42     Fields:    Translation:Animals
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