During the 20+ years of working in natural history research and collections, I’ve worn many hats— student of comparative anatomy, paleontology, physical anthropology, and now herpetologist and GIS/ biodiversity scientist. In my current role at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (UC Berkeley), I oversee museum informatics and GIS technologies and provide training, infrastructure support and analyses in GIS, spatial and distributional modeling and other research-based activities. My research integrates biocollections and fieldwork to answer questions in phylogeography: for example, our Evolutionary Hotspots work, which modeled areas conducive to the processes of speciation by identifying regions of high endemic diversification; or the Grinnell Resurvey Project, an effort to resurvey century-old sites in California to document changes in species distribution and through modeling analyze the impact of climate change. Along the way, I collaborate with experts to build tools that try to make workflows more elegant and data more beautiful.
There's really nothing you cannot map: amphibian biodiversity, the flow of wind*, or even the seven deadly sins*! (* favorites that are not my work)
Past and Present
Biodiversity Informatics & GIS
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, 2006 - present. In charge of the MVZ Archives, caretaker of databases. Chair of the Informatics Committee for the Berkeley Natural History Museums consortium and member of the Arctos Working Group.
Associate Director
University of California, Berkeley, 2008 - present. Oversees informatics, budget, data agreements and new development. Combines my research interest and informatics background with my concern with global amphibian conservation
California Academy of Sciences
Worked in the Herpetology Department, and Research Division from 1996 to 2006. Conducted eight years of biotic surveys in the National Forests of California.
American Museum of Natural History
GIS and archival work to georeference historic specimens from the Chapin and Lang expeditions to the Congo basin from 1909-1915 for the AMNH Digital Library.