135. Interview with parasitologist and artist Dr Tommy Leung

135. Interview with parasitologist and artist Dr Tommy Leung

From Let's Talk SciComm by Unimelb SciComm

April 16, 2026 · 33 min · Season 18 · Episode 3

About this episode

This episode features an interview with Dr Tommy Leung, a parasitologist discussing their research and passion for communicating about parasites.

In this weeks' episode we had a fascinating chat with Dr Tommy Leung who is a parasitologist interested in the ecological and evolutionary facets of parasitism. Their research covers a range of parasite-related topics including macroecological patterns of parasitism, parasite community composition, parasite-host interactions, and disease ecology. The aim of their research is to shed light on a ubiquitous but often overlooked aspect of biodiversity. Tommy is also passionate about communicating parasitology and some of the lesser-known aspects of zoology to the general public. They write the Parasite of the Day blog, and has written multiple articles about parasites for The Conversation. They have also appeared on radio segments and podcasts, and is currently the social media editor for the Journal of Helminthology. You can follow Tommy and find out more about their work here: Parasite of the Day blog: https://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/ Tommy's articles on The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/profiles/tommy-leung-106786/articles Tommy's Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TyMT3ggAAAAJ&hl=en BlueSky account…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr Tommy Leung

Topics covered

  • parasitology
  • ecology
  • evolution
  • biodiversity
  • science communication

Keywords

  • parasitism
  • disease ecology
  • parasite-host interactions
  • macroecological patterns
  • zoology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Journal of Helminthology, The Conversation, Parasite of the Day

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