Ecology Research

• Wildlife ecology and management
• Ecology and evolution of parasitoid wasps and their looper hosts (in collaboration with Dr. Margaret Smith)
• Assessing the impact of study abroad programs

Students will help with the following:

• Conduct hormone and metabolite assays
• Behavioral assays
• Habitat assessments

Students will gain hands-on experience with the following:

• Data collection and analysis
• Sample collection
• Various laboratory techniques such as ELISAs and colorimetric assays

Ecotoxicology - impact of pollution on fish at the biochemical and behavioral levels.

• Fish swimming and feeding studies
• PCR 
• Western blot for liver enzymes that detoxify pollutants

To better understand the behavioral ecology of chimpanzees living in a natural park with increasing anthropogenic pressures, and to better understand how we can mitigate these threats to their conservation.

• Long-term chimpanzee conservation database management
• Individual project development

Kibale Chimpanzee Project

Ecology and conservation of local wildlife populations.

We do a lot of field work primarily focusing on wildlife collection/trapping techniques.

In the lab we produce ArcGIS maps, analyze data, and create figures.

Aside from the research aspect, a lot of time is spent trying to improve students' resumes, apply to graduate programs and internships, and prepare them for their next step after UNG.

Wildlife ecology research primarily focused on resource use (such as habitat, spatial parameters, and thermal conditions), physiology, behavior, and disease of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology).

• Field research
• Animal handling
• Data collection
• Data entry
• Data analysis
• Presentations at conferences (local, regional, and national)

• Collecting, rearing and identifying insects and plants
• Cultivating microorganisms
• Extracting metabolites and nucleic acids from insects, plants and microorganisms, and using analytical techniques to measures these compounds
• Data entry and analysis
• Constructing and presenting posters and talks to present at conferences
• Preparing manuscripts for publication

My current collaboration with Dr. Hyslop includes ecology research focused on resource use (such as habitat, spatial parameters, and thermal conditions), physiology, behavior, and disease of amphibians and reptiles, especially with turtles. I have interests in examining fecal bacteria presence as well. I also have students that work on skeletal reconstruction from mammalian road kill remains.

• Field research
• Animal handling and sample collection
• Data collection
• Data entry
• Data analysis
• Presentations at conferences (local, regional, and national)