Background

Dr. Ronald Enrique Morales Vargas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Entomology. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Entomology from the Institute for Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan. He is actively involved in research within the Department and also teaches at the Bangkok School of Tropical Medicine. 

Departments/Centers

• Medical Entomology

Research

Dr. Ronald is an expert in biological systematic, taxonomy, ecology, medical entomology, vector borne diseases ecology, molecular entomology, and geometric morphometrics. Dr. Ronald’s current research aims to ascertain virus identification associated with naturally infecting mosquitoes, mosquito specific virus (MSV) and mosquito borne viruses. Dr. Morales is aiming to determine the health threat potential and the potential use as vector control of this MSV. In parallel, he is also studying the vector competence of mosquito thriven in domestic and peridomestic habitats of human and animal dwellings within urban, rural and forest areas of Thailand. He is currently targeting viruses such as zika, chikungunya, mayaro and dengue. In the geometric morphometric space, Dr. Morales is collaborating with Emeritus Professor Jean Pierre Dujardin from IRD, France, to establish a mosquito wing bank used to assist in the proper identification of mosquitos located in Thailand through open sharing online.

Ongoing Research Project(s)