Chris Klaes

MA student

About

I work with Dr. Fabian Crespo.

 

My research interests concern how infectious epidemics have shaped the human immune system.  Primarily, our research investigates how chronic infections may alter the immune system and succeptibility to diseases associated with chronic inflammation. As an undergraduate, I served as a REACH tutor for anthropology and as a research assistant for anthropology under the supervision of Dr. Fabian Crespo.  As a Graduate student, I continued my role as a research assistant and as a graduate teaching assistant.  I have presented a poster of our research at the Paleopathological Association’s meeting in Calgary, AB in 2014.  This year, I will give a podium presentation at the annual American Association of Physical Anthropology meeting.

My experience as a graduate student in the department has been fantastic.  The broad nature of the discipline has allowed me to explore a wide variety of topics related to the discipline.  Only in anthropology can you take immunology and social theory courses in the same semester as a graduate student.  This has provided me with a wide lens that all future academic interests will be pursued through.  I have worked closely with both Dr. Christopher Tillquist and Dr. Fabian Crespo.  With Dr. Tillquist, I worked as a teaching assistant and gained great insight into what it takes to teach anthropology. With Dr. Crespo, I have worked as a lab assistant.  This experience has provided me with immense skills in various laboratory techniques, as well as experimental design and data analysis.

Fun Facts:

1) I’m a huge Star Trek fan. So long as it remains on Netflix, I will never be bored.

2) I enjoy the outdoors. Hiking, biking, backpacking, you name it.

3) I’m a political junkie. I was a political science major before I turned to anthropology. Couldn’t be more pleased with that decision.