I am a natural historian at heart.
Natural history provides us with the background information to pose sound and interesting ecological and evolutionary questions. This relationship was what drew me to this field, and it is from this intersection that my interests arise. I am a researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Currently I am working as a Schmidt Futures Fellow, collaborating with Dr. Carla Gomes in the Computer Science department on campus. The focus of our current project is incorporating detections from automated acoustic identification into species distribution models. |
ResearchMy research focuses on understanding why species occur where they do, and why they look how they do. I am increasingly interested in what this information can teach us about forestalling our ongoing biodiversity crisis, and my current work is targeted accordingly. I use phylogenetic comparative methods and synthesize field, museum, and citizen science data on the behavioral, ecological and morphological attributes of organisms to address fundamental questions of biodiversity.
|
Outreach and EducationA team of us at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, particularly the Macaulay Library and eBird, have been designing and teaching workshops focused on how to use eBird and Merlin to be a better bird watcher and steward for your local environment. These workshops are sometimes combined with Macaulay Library-led sound-recording workshops, depending on the audience. I also mentor Cornell undergraduates on independent research projects of mutual interest.
|