About Jon
I'm an ecologist. I study people, adaptation, and environmental change. Most of my work is based in sub-Saharan Africa, with a few newer projects in the American West. Before joining the CSU faculty, I was a postdoc at CU Boulder. I grew up in rural Oregon and feel very much at home in Colorado.
Website Google Scholar ProfileInterests
- Theory from ecology and systems science applied to biodiversity conservation and human livelihood challenges
- Human-wildlife conflict, specifically elephant crop raiding and livestock predation by large carnivores (Iringa, Tanzania; Kavango-Zambezi)
- Human mobility, landscape change, and socially transmitted norms of behavior (Sukuma, Maasai, and Barabaig ethnic groups in Tanzania)
- Drivers of rainfall patterns and farmer observations of and responses to climate change (western Uganda)
- Quantitative fieldwork, computational modeling, geospatial analysis
Education
PhD, Ecology - University of California Davis
Davis, CA, 2015
MS, Ecology - University of California Davis
Davis, CA, 2012
BA, Biology and History - University of Rochester
Rochester, NY, 2002
Awards, Honors, Grants
- NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences (co-reviewed by Climate Dynamics), “Understanding the Role of Congo Moisture in Rainfall Variability and Forecast Information Used by Smallholder Farmers in the Uganda Albertine Rift.” Salerno, Co-PI. $400,000, 2017-2020
- NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences, “Change and Adaptation in Southern Africa: Climate and Land Systems Dynamics of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.” Salerno, named postdoc. $325,000, 2016-2019