Overview
I am a theoretical ecologist, working mostly on questions in population, community, and evolutionary ecology. My recent work has focused on applications of trait-based models in population and community ecology (see Research below for details). My students and postdocs have worked on a variety of related and unrelated projects, such as detection of invasive species, analysis of eco-evolutionary dynamics using fast-slow systems theory, evolution of multiple defense traits in plants, and continental-scale modeling of monarch butterfly populations. I am a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (class of 2016) and Horace White Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
My recent teaching includes BioEE 3620/MATH 3620: Dynamic Models in Biology, BioEE 7600:Introduction to Modeling in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and BioEE 3610: Advanced Ecology.
Research Focus
My current research topics include: using structured population models to analyze the origins of between-individual variability in lifetime outcomes (longevity, reproductive success, etc.); identifying the environmental “drivers” of population and community dynamics; population modeling and management of infectious diseases in multi-species communities characterized by functional traits, especially plant-pollinator networks; developing methods to identify and quantify the mechanisms allowing species coexistence and maintaining biodiversity in real communities.
Publications
For a complete list of publications, please see my Google scholar page here.