I am a PhD candidate in my third year at Texas A&M University. I have an undergraduate degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University.

The central theme of my work is the investigation of how specific abiotic factors, particularly temperature and moisture availability, affect the phenology of key pests and pathogens. Currently, I am working with collaborators in forensic entomology to develop simulation models used to study how different thermal landscape scenarios could impact blow fly development and the implications this has in forensic investigations. These models port easily to agriculture where I am interested in applying them to study arthropod vectors of plant pathogens.

Publications and Conference Activity

Hayter, JT., Chappell, TM. (2019). Projecting spatially heterogeneous thermal landscapes into the past to drive insect development models. North American Forensic Entomology Association Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN.

Hayter, JT., Chappell, TM. (2018). Adapting Soil Moisture Models to Improve Epidemiological Modeling of Soilborne Plant Disease. Conference on Soilborne Plant Pathogens, Portland, OR.

Hayter, JT., Chappell, TM. (2018). Integrating Real-time Edaphics into Epidemic Models for Predicting Risk in Soilborne Pathogen Systems. International Congress on Plant Pathology, Boston, MA.