Joe Tabor

I have over 20 years of consulting experience in natural resource management, agriculture, and public health in North America, Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. This experience includes the disciplines of epidemiology, agronomy, botany, ecology, forestry, and pedology. My analytical skills include statistical analysis, GIS, satellite image processing, and household interview techniques. I’ve worked in deserts to rainforests and in urban and rural environments.

My current research passion is the epidemiology and ecology of valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) a potentially fatal disease caused by inhaling the soil borne fungus Coccidioides spp.Understanding the ecological and epidemiological relationships of known and hypothesized determinants of growth, dispersion, exposure, and infection for Coccidioides spp. will require an interdisciplinary approach and offers numerous research opportunities.

(Science of the Total Environment, 2010, 408(10):2199-2207)

Another passion is ethnopedology, how local systems of soil and land classification relate to scientific systems. This is particularly relevant in information-poor areas for selecting sites for agricultural interventions that are new to an area and potentially for estimating carbon sequestration opportunities. Ethnopedology “can provide a common language, establish value, and assure quality of soil investigations for scientists, extension agents, and development workers. Vernacular soil names have been used throughout history and helped provide the basis of scientific classification” (Geoderma, 2003, 111(3-4):197-215).