Jan Conn

Template:Short description Template:For Jan E. Conn (born 1952) is a Canadian geneticist and poet. She resides in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where she does research on mosquito genetics at the Wadsworth Center, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York State Department of Health in Albany, New York.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She has also written six books of poetry.

BiographyEdit

Conn was born in Asbestos, Quebec and moved to Montreal at the age of 17.<ref name="WUCBio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She received her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Toronto in 1987.<ref name=":0" /> She has traveled to Guatemala, Venezuela, Florida, Vermont and Massachusetts, conducting research on insects that transmit pathogens. Before taking up her current work on population genetics of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in South America and Africa,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> she was a recognized expert on the genetics of Black fly (Simulium) species vectoring river blindness (onchocerciasis) in Central America.

PoetryEdit

Conn has written several books of poetry, including Jaguar Rain: the Margaret Mee poems, inspired by the diaries and botanical art of Margaret Mee.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> She has won numerous awards and major travel grants related to poetry, including a CBC Literary Prize, the inaugural P.K. Page Founder’s Award, and a nomination for a Pushcart Prize in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1987, her book The Fabulous Disguise of Ourselves was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, as was South of the Tudo Bem Cafe, in 1991.<ref name="CM Archive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>