My broad research theme is understanding processes that affect wild animal populations, especially climate and land-use change in space and time. I take quantitative approaches like hierarchical modeling to analyze relationships and patterns in observed data to test ecological hypotheses. Yet, I am also an avid field ecologist enjoying working with wildlife in their habitat. I aim to contribute to biodiversity conservation through my research.

In the Zuckerberg Lab, I work with Dr. Zuckerberg and Nick Anich from the Wisconsin DNR to analyze the distribution of breeding bird abundance and occurrence across Wisconsin. My work is a part of the second Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas project. In addition, I will further dig into research topics with the breeding bird atlas data. i.e., methodological insights for monitoring breeding bird populations, drivers of population change in space and time, and approaches for avian biodiversity conservation using the data.

Before joining the lab, I did my doctoral research at Oregon State University. I participated in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest LTER program’s long-term breeding bird survey and studied how microclimates created by forests affect bird population dynamics and how forest vegetation diversity can help the breeding forest bird populations under warming climate conditions. For another chapter, I modeled the annual migratory movement of Hermit Warblers across their breeding range. Using geolocators deployed on birds, collaborators from various institutions and I tracked this small, western forest obligate species’ annual movement.

In addition, I am interested in contributing to avian biodiversity in E/SE Asia and building scientific evidence for such conservation decisions and efforts. Part of my earlier effort is to have a dissertation chapter assessing changes in occurrences of common breeding birds in South Korea. I plan to continue to provide service to this community on my ‘extra’ time.

Education:

Ph.D. Forest Ecosystems and Society – Oregon State University, 2021.

M.S. Forest Sciences – Seoul National University, 2015.

B.S. Forest Environmental Sciences – Seoul National University, 2012.

Publications:

Please see my Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gDx7QVIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao