Members

I’m not currently in a position to accept graduate students, but I am able to serve on committees and mentor undergraduates. Please email me if you are interested in any of this research.

Current Folks

Principal Investigators

Jacob C. Cooper (Assistant Professor)

Growing up in western Colorado, Jacob was fascinated by the diversity of birds in the southwestern “sky islands” and the patchy, limited distributions of plants and animals in this rugged region. Jacob now studies the ecology and evolution of (mostly) birds worldwide, focusing specifically on the ecology and distribution of North American birds and on the ecology and biogeography of African birds. Jacob is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney since July 2023, and he is a Research Associate of the Field Museum. Jacob is a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Click here to learn more about Jacob or view his CV.

Nate Eidem (Lecturer)

A recent convert to collecting bird-related data, Nate is a geographer by trade. He is especially interested in the relationships between river basins and the people, flora, and fauna that inhabit them. Equally adept at ArcGIS and wrestling, Nate has had a varied career that leaves him uniquely capable to tackle biodiversity related research questions. Nate is a Lecturer at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Graduate Students

Eugene Huryn

Eugene is broadly interested in species ecology and diversification, especially as it relates to the evolution of diversity on earth. Eugene’s research will focus on disentangling the dynamics of contact zones between closely related species in Nebraska. Eugene is a native of both Alberta and Alabama, having completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama.

Undergrads

Students are listed alphabetically.

Daniel Flint

Intrigued by the dynamics of species’ distributions near around his home in the Sandhills, Daniel will be working on niche ecology of birds that reach the edge of their range in Nebraska. New to ornithology (and still deciding on his future career path), he’s working on honing his skills with photography and sound recording with the birds of the Great Plains.

Peggy Huss

Interested in genetics and understanding evolutionary relationships, Peggy will be working on an extensive database of East African bird genomes. Her work will help uncover the evolutionary relationships across the sky islands of the Lacustrine Rift, and help us better understand the diversity of the region.

Darcey Taylor

Darcey is an undergraduate who is interested in wildlife and ecology. She is working on studying the contact zone between different populations of birds in the Great Plains, namely Pipilo towhees in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Ajelina Mijak

Ajelina comes to us from the aviation program to help with our data digitization project. Working closely with the Professor Laurinda Weisse and others at the UNK Library, her work will help make available original notes on the birds of Nebraska - some of which are over a century old!

Mike Roffman

Interested in historical dynamics of birds, Mike will be working with folks at the UNK library to digitize historical ornithological information and make it available for public use. He will use these data in his research to help understand how the avian landscape of Nebraska has changed through time.

Past Folks

Folks are listed in reverse order of graduation or finishing research.

Undergraduates

Maddie Bengston

Maddie (UNK class of 2024) is known for her wide range of class and research experiences on her journey towards becoming a dermatologist. Using field surveys and computer modeling, Maddie worked towards improving our understanding of nocturnal bird distributions within the state of Nebraska.

Josh G. Bell

Josh is broadly interested in ecology and conservation, and blends his holistic views of nature with hands-on and theoretical research. Josh was awarded a K-INBRE Summer Scholar grant in 2023 to study the distribution of Chihuahuan Meadowlarks Sturnella lilianae in the grasslands of the southwestern United States. Josh is currently an undergrad at Haskell Indian Nations University.

Mélusine Velde

Mélusine is broadly interested in conservation and biodiversity. Equally at home in the US and France, Mélusine has worked on a variety of projects on three continents, and her undergraduate thesis focused on testing the predictions of ecological niche models in Costa Rica. Mélusine completed a Masters at Imperial College, Silwood Park, and currently works for the Cheshire Wildlife Trust in the United Kingdom.

Sara Velásquez Restrepo

Sara is broadly interested in biodiversity and conservation, and enjoys birding and traveling. Her undergraduate thesis focused on studying ecological niche diversity in cotingas in South America. Sara is currently pursuing a Masters at the Universidad EAFIT in Medellín working on methods to use environmental DNA to detect rare taxa. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a PhD at Louisiana State University in the United States.

Other Members

Gracie Lou Cooper

Gracie is particularly interested in the temporal ecology of rabbits, squirrels, and opossums in her yard. She also studies physics related to spherical objects, particularly when these objects are thrown at high speed.