Meet The Members
Background:
Originally, I am from Bangladesh. I am a second-year PhD student. My research focuses on the epidemiology and ecology of zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans, especially bats. I use machine learning to understand the pathogen spillover from bats to humans with climate, landscape, and anthropogenic changes over the world.
Research Area:
Infectious zoonotic disease epidemiology and ecology
Fun Fact:
Travelling
Connor Hughes (He/Him)
Background:
I received my BS in Natural Resource Conservation in Fish and Wildlife from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016, where I also received a certificate in Geospatial Technologies. I then completed my Masters of Biology at Austin Peay State University in 2022, where I combined mechanistic and empirical modeling techniques to investigate range wide influences on variation in asymptotic body size of Gila Monsters (Heloderma suspectum).
Research Area:
I am a wildlife and spatial ecologist interested in species response to the variability present in a landscape across both in time and space. I am especially interested in the impact and response of species to anthropogenic changes in the environment, such as habitat loss, introduced threats, or changing climate. The basis of my work combines on-the-ground field biology and digital analytical tools like R, Python, and GIS. Doing so provides a better understanding of a species which can be put towards informing landscape management practices and developing actionable species conservation plans. Though I am interested in a wide variety of spatial questions, my primary taxa of interest are amphibians and reptiles, which I have extensive field work experience with and began studying in 2013.
Background:
I am from Long Beach, California, and completed my B.S. in Biological Sciences with an emphasize in Wildlife Ecology and Management at Northern Arizona University. I then began working in Belize, Central America where I met Dr. Marcella Kelly and am now her graduate student.
Research Area:
I am currently studying terrestrial wildlife community dynamics and species richness over a 20 year dataset in multiple study areas in Belize, Central America.
Fun Fact:
I was a part of Northern Arizona University's track team where I ran the 4x400 and 400 m hurdle races.
Background:
Priscila is a Brazilian PhD student at Fish and Wildlife Conservation. Her background involves a Bachelor and Teaching Degree in Biological Sciences and Master in Complex Systems Modeling program with extensive experience in interdisciplinary research, with a focus on social-ecological systems. Her main interest is to understand the relationships between human activities and the environment, from a social-ecological perspective, in order to understand how these dynamics can affect conservation policies and local livelihoods. In her thesis she is conducting studies on the environmental and social factors that influence the community-based management of arapaima, as well as the food security of riparian communities involved in this management.
Research Area:
social-ecological systems
Background:
Brazilian, Masters in Ecology studying functional and taxonmic composition of fish assemblages in streams and rivers from the Amazon Basiin
Research Area:
Effects of climate change in inland fisheries in tropical river floodplains
Background:
I'm originally from Dhaka and wear many hats as a father, husband, teacher, and researcher. I previously worked with fishers in the Bay of Bengal, and now focus on studying anglers in the Great Lakes region.
Research Area:
Fisheries, Human dimensions, Social-ecological Systems, Resource conservation and management, Human behaviors, etc.