My Research Focus
I am an ecologist, wildlife biologist and conservationist with a broad background in conservation biology, landscape ecology, and conservation technology. I have extensive expertise and field experience researching the ecology of diverse international taxa and habitats across terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including giant pandas, California condors, orcas, dugongs, Andean bears, Hawaiian hawks and desert tortoises.
My research interests lie in the application of cutting-edge technologies, such as biotelemetry, GIS, remote sensing, drones and spatial modeling techniques to characterize the ecology of threatened species and habitats with a view to enhancing strategies for their conservation management.
My research has a strong applied component, and has informed government and private sector management efforts, including the zoning of habitat protection areas and the mitigation of renewable energy development impacts on wildlife.​
RECENT RESEARCH MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
My image of a 3D home range model generated from biotelemetry data acquired from a wild California condor I tracked flying across the mountains of northern Baja, Mexico won first prize in its category in the annual
My autonomous virtual geofence alert system for providing early warning of avian encroachment into wind farm areas to prevent collision injuries has been covered by media articles in
I teamed up with Dr. Jeff Tracey at USGS, Dr. Jun Zhu at the University of Wisconsin Department of Statistics, and the incredible brain power and processing power at the San Diego Supercomputer Center to develop novel 3D visualization and modeling techniques for investigating animal movements:
My project to track the endangered thick-billed parrot in the Mexican State of Chihuahua in collaboration with our in-country partners at the conservation NGO OVIS has been covered by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance newsletter ZooNooz and Bird Watching Daily
Our 'io (Hawaiian hawk) conservation research program was recently covered by the Washington Post. Great to see this important collaborative conservation work being given such a big platform. The 'io is important ecologically and culturally, yet it is surprisingly data deficient. The species is only found on the Big Island of Hawaii, so any large-scale impact to its population could have serious consequences. Learn more about how San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and its partners at the University of Hawaii, USFWS and DOFAW are working to better understand and protect the 'io: