Postdocs
Katie Steele
I have a MA (2003) and a BSc (2002) from the University of Queensland and a PhD from the University of Sydney. My PhD thesis is on the philosophical foundations of social choice and how they apply to environmental decision making, particularly how the precautionary principle is interpretted in formal decision theory. My general research interests are in decision theory, social choice and environmental- and bio-ethics. I am currently working on the theory of consensus and social choice in the context of conservation biology and environmental risk assessment through a project funded by the Australian Centre of Excellence in Risk Analysis. I am advised by Mark Colyvan (University of SYdney) and Helen Regan.
PhD Students
Dawn Lawson
I received a Bachelor of Science from University of California at Davis and a Masters degree in ecology at SDSU. I currently work as the Senior Natural Resources Specialist for the Southwest Division Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Diego.
For my PhD work I am integrating population modeling with formal decision making and adaptive management methods to identify the most effective management strategy to benefit a range of species in fragmented habitats that experience altered disturbance regimes. I am focussing on approximately 5 species representing different trophic levels or guilds at Pt. Loma Naval Base in San Diego. I will evaluate the impact of potential natural resources management practices on population viability and biodiversity and develop a general framework for formal decision making for mutli-species management.
Masters Students
Andrew Steyers
I completed a Bachelor of Science degree at San Diego State University with an emphasis in Marine Ecology.
For my Masters project I am investigating the effects of data uncertainty on protocols for listing at-risk species. I am using population models to generate time series data for different time horizons and with different levels of variation and uncertainty to determine the robustness of species listings to incomplete or imprecise data sets under a range of threatened and endangered species listing protocols. The results of this work will contribute to the development of relaible scientific criteria for listing at-risk species. I am working in collaboration with Dr Tracey Regan and Dr Barbara Taylor at NOAA.
Undergraduate Students
Rachael Vrooman
Rachael is undertaking a Special Studies research project on the effects of poaching on a range of parrot species. She is using stochastic stage-based models to determine if there are life history traits that make some species' more vulnerable to the effects of poaching than others. She is working in conjunction with Prof Cathy Toft at UC Davis and Dr Helen Regan.
Alison Reynolds
Alison Reynolds is also undertaking a Special Studies research project on the effects of poaching on a range of parrot species. She is using stochastic stage-based models to determine if there are life history traits that make some species' more vulnerable to the effects of poaching than others. She is working in conjunction with Prof Cathy Toft at UC Davis and Dr Helen Regan.
Lab Associates
Kurt Anderson
I completed a PhD in Ecology at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2004. I now work as a postdoctoral researcher at Florida State University. My research interests span quantitative population ecology with an emphasis in spatial population dynamics. I use mathematical and statistical population models to understand what generates and maintains spatial patterns in organism abundance. My research activities are broad and include: spatial scaling in streams and rivers; modeling spatially-explicit consumer-resource interactions; and linking individual behavior to population-level dispersal distributions using mark-recapture techniques.
Tracey Regan
I completed a PhD in Environmental Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia. I now work as a National Research Council Postdoc at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego. My research focuses on the use of population models and decision theory techniques to address questions in conservation and wildlife management. Currently I am working on evaluating the performance of decision metrics for highlighting threatened and endangered species under various levels of uncertainty.
Lab Alumni
John Crookston
John was a Masters student in the lab 2004-2007. He used population viability analysis to investigate the efects of altered fire regime and habitat loss and fragmentation on a southern Californian obligate seeder, Ceanothus greggii. He was co-advised by Professor Janet Franklin.
Lisa Markovchick-Nicholls
Lisa was a Masters student in the lab from 2004-2007. She used population viability analysis to examine the effects of altered fire regimes on fragmented populations of Tecate Cypress. She investigated the potential impacts of a rang of management scenarios on population persistance of this species.
Toni Mizerek
Toni was a Masters student in the lab 2004-2007. She used stochastic matrix population models to investigate the effects of habitat fragmentation and harvesting on blue crabs. She investigated the risk of decline or extinction on blue crab populations under a range of habitat fragmentation scenarios and used population viability analysis to rank conservation management options for eel grass restoration, reduced harvest and introductions of juvenile blue crabs.
Astrid Widyanata
Astrid worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the lab from 2005 to 2006. She now works for a biotech company in Irvine, CA.
Mariah Freese
Mariah worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the lab in 2005. She now teaches science at middle school in San Diego and plans to complete a degree in veterinary science.
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