Tim Burton - About me

Hello there! My name is Tim Burton (the one and only), and I'm the program manager for the RaHP VEC training and evaluation center. I'll be participating in these blog posts  from time to time through the summer, mostly about happenings at the center and describing my work mostly related to data management with our regional partners. 

For now, though, a bit about me. I grew up here in Fort Collins, Colorado before attending Colorado State University, where I studied for a B.S. in Microbiology. After graduating, I spent three months thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. My intention was to finish it (and still is, one day...), but while I was somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains I was offered a position as a post-bac researcher at the National Institutes of Health. There, I had the opportunity to culture malaria parasites and infect mosquitoes while working with some great scientists and people. Following two years at the NIH, I enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Notre Dame, where I honed my statistical analysis and modeling skills (a LOT of coding) and studied outdoor mosquito control methods in Indonesia and southern Zambia. I was incredibly fortunate to spend about 7 months in Zambia running entomological semi-field and field trials. I was a little less fortunate to be there in March 2020, but it all worked out.

On a personal level, I have a great partner named Carly, two big dogs (Frankie and Remi), and a feisty 11-year-old cat that acts a decade younger. Together, we have about 120 houseplants and enjoy gardening and working in our yard. It is great to be back in Colorado; during the summer months I try to spend a lot of time outdoors cycling on the road or in the mountains, hiking, camping, etc. I also enjoy watching and playing basketball, woodworking, reading, and video games. 

Thanks for hanging in for this long post, you shouldn't feel like you need to write this much. I wanted to put a lot of info out there so that you can see the path I took to get here, and please know that I'm always willing to chat about it if you're looking for advice or are just curious. I'm looking forward to this summer and seeing your progress as we go along! 

 

I added some pics of our pets as a reward for making it this far 😊