Past Graduate Students
Kim O'Keefe is studying how climate influences ground squirrel distribution, life history and population dynamics in the Yellowstone region. She is investigating how the ecological and evolutionary characteristic of the species affect its response to climate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Kim received her Masters Degree from San Francisco State University and her B.A. from UC Santa Barbara.

Yvonne Chan
e-mail: ylhchan@hawaii.edu
Judsen received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, where he studied biochemistry with an emphasis on environmental chemistry. JudsenÂ’s undergraduate thesis assessed levels of mercury in important game fish from around the state of Vermont. Since then he has studied a wide variety of topics, including arsenic toxicity, production of novel antibiotics, amphibian decline, and fish genetics.

Paula Spaeth
e-mail: paula.spaeth@gmail.com
Portions of her thesis will examine the composition of the rodent paleo-community in Yellowstone National Park and the ecological interactions that characterize the modern rodent community in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The questions she hopes to address are: (1) What are the ecological and evolutionary consequences of stable associations of taxa over long (millennial) time-scales? (2) What factors (ecological, climatic, etc.) influence the turnover of taxa within a community on millennial time-scales?
She is studying the population dynamics of several voles species (Microtus spp. and Clethrionomys gapperi) using mark-recapture techniques, and the ecological interactions between these species using removal experiments in the Centennial Valley at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, MT. A recent fire in the Centennial Valley may allow Paula to examine the effects of a habitat mosaic on community composition and quantify rates and sources of vole colonization of disturbed habitat patches.
Paula also is interested in determining what percentage of airborne deermice (Peromyscus spp.) spin their tails like propellers. When she isn’t chasing rodents, Paula enjoys running, pretending that she is in Montana, and eating donuts.
Past Postdoctoral Scholars

Robert Feranec
Website
Robert Feranec (2005-2006)
Currently works as the Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York. His research examines the evolution of ecology in ancient mammals predominately from the Pleistocene epoch. The primary methods he uses to obtain data include analyses of stable isotope geochemistry, morphometrics, and bioinformatics databases. His research has focused in regions including New York, California, Colorado, Florida, Wyoming, and Spain.
Christopher J. Conroy (1999-2001)
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
University of California
3101 Valley Life Sciences Building
Berkeley, California 94720-3160 USA
phone: (510) 642-3567
ondatra@berkeley.edu
Ripan Singh Malhi (2001)
Department of Anthropology
Animal Biology
Institute for Genomic Biology
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
185 Davenport Hall
607 Matthews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
ph: (217) 265-0721
malhi@uiuc.edu
Uma Ramakrishnan (2003-2005)
National Centre for Biological Sciences
GKVK Campus, Bellary Road
Bangalore-560065, India
ph: 91-80-23666030
uramakri@ncbs.res.in
Seth D. Newsome (2006)
Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory
5251 Broad Branch Road, NW
Washington, DC 20015
oh: (202) 478-1078
snewsome@ciw.edu
Past Past Lab Rotations
K. Heiman (1999-2000)
A. Novakovic (2000-2001)
D. Ouimette (2001)
J. Stamburger (2001)
T. Steele (1999-2003)
S. Porder (2000-2001)
T. Oliver (2004)
Liz Alter (2004, 2007)
Tanya McKittrick (2004)
M. Pespeni (2005-2006)
M. Pinsky (2006-2007)
K. Miklaz (2006-2007)



