Research

I’m an ecologist with a background in physics, with an interest in animal movement, foraging and population ecology. My research bridges the disciplines of movement ecology, population ecology, meteorology and computer science, addressing questions on the effects of global change on the distribution and population sizes of migratory birds.

At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology I study the migration corridors of small songbirds at the scale of a full continent, a perspective that has recently come into reach through the use of meteorological weather radar networks in animal migration studies, as well as large-scale citizen science projects. I use weather radar networks as well as individual tags to address questions in migration ecology, including when and where birds migrate, when and where birds die within the annual cycle, and how shifting patterns in mortality and recruitment of young birds cause bird abundances to change.

I also develop software tools for biologists using weather radar as a tool in their research, including the R-package bioRad for biological analysis of weather radar data.

Projects and news