Blog

Richard Coleman’s pioneering work seeks to understand the processes behind patterns of biodiversity in coral reef systems. His research questions span from ecological to evolutionary timescales, and his approaches range from technical rebreather diving in deep waters to genomics research at the lab bench.

In collaboration with park rangers, naturalists, students and academics, Kristina Cockle works to advance knowledge of bird ecology and natural history. A primary focus of their research has been interactions within and across communities of cavity-nesting birds and mammals. Some species, such as woodpeckers, can excavate their own nest sites, but most cavity-nesters depend on pre-existing spaces to nest.

Holly Lutz’s studies have taken her to Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Honduras and Peru where she has worked in woodlands, dry savannah, rainforests, caves, mines and even outhouses. Working as a field researcher in varied environments, she documents the biodiversity of the largely unseen world of microbes that live as symbionts in close association with mammals, birds, and invertebrates.  

Divya Vasudev works in a diverse, threatened area of Northeast India where there is conflict between the needs of people and wildlife, which is causing major loss of biodiversity. Vasudev’s studies have examined how to increase forest connectivity and reduce species persistence for iconic species, such as elephants and gibbons, that inhabit these landscapes. She uses both biological and human-dimension lenses in the examination of these environments.

Camille Truong devotes her time as a field researcher to an understudied kingdom of organisms: fungi. Her initial research focused on the lichen-forming fungi, and now considers how ectomycorrhizal fungi play important roles in the establishment, growth and health of trees and other vascular plants in forests around the world.