Assist. Professor, Northern Arizona University

Dr. Nieto was an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences at Northern Arizona University. His research focused on infectious diseases, vector biology, and the ecological evolution and transmission of disease from wildlife to humans and domestic animals. His recent work examined the Lyme-causing pathogen Borrelia burdgorferi. He co-authored, with Dan Salkeld, the highly publicized Bay Area Tick Study, documenting Borrelia bacteria prevalence in the greater Bay Area.

Nathan Nieto PhD 1975 – 2019

It is with tremendous sadness that we say goodbye to our great friend and colleague. Nate was the first researcher the Bay Area Lyme Foundation funded when we began in 2012. Along with his best friend and fellow researcher Dan Salkeld, they proved that there is indeed Lyme disease in ticks in California. A lot has transpired since then: Nate joined our Scientific Advisory Board, spoke at LymeAid 2017 with Alec Baldwin and in 2018 along with his friend Dan, published the first results from the Citizen Science Free Tick Testing program.

But most of all, Nate was a force of nature and so fun to be around—always talking about surfing, mountain bike riding and snowboarding, always offering an open door at his Flagstaff, AZ home. Nate had an amazing power of making meaningful connections with everyone he met. Our deepest condolences to his wife Emily, his family, and all of our friends at the Nieto Lab at Northern Arizona University. We all “loved him to bits.”