I'm a specialist in infectious diseases, with my main academic interest being mosquito and tick borne tropical infections.

Aedes is the name of a genus of mosquitos that includes Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits yellow fever and dengue fever, and Aedes albopictus which is responsible for the current outbreak of chikungunya fever around the Indian Ocean.

You sound like a very morbid person.

You sound like a very morbid person.

Strange comment -- I take care of people who are sick, that's the direct opposite of morbidity.

The word you are looking for would be "Mordant" rather than "Morbid."
They're quite different:

mordant
adjective
a mordant sense of humor caustic, trenchant, biting, cutting, acerbic, sardonic, sarcastic, scathing, acid, sharp, keen; critical, bitter, virulent, vitriolic.

I meant what I said. Taking the obscure name of a mosquito because of the fact that it spreads a particularly nasty disease seems to fit the definition very well.

I do not mean this as a knock against you, just that you have identified yourself with a name that represents something that is quite ghastly.

Why not name yourself after any of the scientists who worked on discovering and treating those diseases, or after a cure or vaccine?

a) I had just given a seminar about the Aedes and Anopheles mosquitos the same week I joined this forum

b) I have taken care of patients with Aedes-borne diseases (specifically dengue), and it's one of my academic undertakings (academic in a professional sense)

c) I did not choose it as a forum name because it spreads deadly diseases -- I chose the name for this forum because the Greek derivation of its name seemed like it would fit in a Philosophy forum whether or not you knew what it meant

It also represents a focus of my life work, and it's not ghastly in and of itself -- it's important, and it's extraordinarily challenging, complex, and fascinating. I see that as hopeful, not morbid.

You win. Justin, can you change my username to William Crawford Gorgas?

I do see your point, but recognize that in this setting my alias is a taxonomic name that CAN but does not necessarily cause disease (there are many species of Aedes that are not human disease vectors) and therein only obliquely refers to the downstream suffering -- and not a human perpetrator of mass suffering like Pol Pot. What if someone were being cute and called themselves "E. coli", i.e. one of the most commonly recognizable of all bacteria. Well, I've seen a heck of a lot more people die of E. coli than yellow fever, but I doubt anyone would think it disrespectful.

There was another forum in which I called myself Plasmodium, which is the genus of malaria parasites that kill 2 million African children a year. Is it disrespectful to them to call myself that when I happen to do research on the parasite, when I have a publication about to come out on it, etc?

Do you think you're being a bit too politically correct?

Ok... I don't consider it morbid, and I certainly don't consider myself morbid -- my interest in diseases is intellectual, humanitarian, and professional, and certainly not a matter of morbid interest.

If you read through the Member list, the names chosen range from the incredible to the ironic to the bizarre.
Here is a chance to tell us why you chose the Name you did.