Dr. Scott Yanco - Principal Investigator
Scott Yanco is a Research Ecologist in the Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Scott leads the Ecology of Death research program which uses animal tracking, mark-recapture, and advanced modeling to understand how and why animals die and what that means for populations. He has more two decades of field experience across North America, and his research combines that empirical grounding with quantitative and simulation-based approaches to connect individual-level observations to broad ecological and evolutionary patterns.
Contact: YancoS [at] si.edu
Dr. Madison Sutton - Postdoc
Maddie is a James Smithson Postdoctoral fellow, co-advised with Dr. Nathan Cooper. Maddie studies the drivers of avian population demography, bringing extensive field and quantitative modeling experience to these questions.
Contact: SuttonM [at] si.edu
Dr. Stephanie Szarmach - ​Postdoc
​Steph is a James Smithson Postdoctoral fellow, co-advised with Dr. Nathan Cooper. ​Steph is studying migratory stopover ecology of Painted Buntings and Kirtland's Warblers using cutting edge geolocator technology.
Contact: SzarmachS [at] si.edu
Dr. Emily Shertzer - Postdoc
Emily is a postdoctoral fellow, co-advised with Drs. Nathan Cooper and Clark Rushing. Emily is interested in the full annual cycle ecology of migratory songbirds and is studying population dynamics in Kirtland's warblers.
Contact: ShertzerE [at] si.edu
Dr. Stephaine Chia - Postdoc
Stephanie is a Peter Buck Postdoctoral fellow, co-advised by Drs. Carla Dove and Helen James at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She explores the colors found across the world's birds—and those that are missing—to understand what limits feather color diversity.
Contact: ChiaSY [at] si.edu
Jiangyue Wang - Graduate Fellow
Jiangyue Wang is a PhD student in Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management at the University of Washington. Her research combines animal movement, demography, and spatial data to understand cougars on the Olympic Peninsula. As a graduate fellow at the Smithsonian, she is studying how interactions among predators, prey, and people shape animal movement and survival.
Contact: jyuewang [at] uw.edu
Dr. Ruth Oliver - Collaborator
Ruth is an Assistant Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on developing methodologies and leveraging emerging technologies to harness the power of big data to gain new ecological insights and create global biodiversity metrics that can inform policy choices. Ruth is a close collaborator of the lab and co-leads the Ecology of Death research program with Scott.
Learn more about Ruth's lab and work here! 
Dr. Nathan Cooper - Collaborator
Nathan Cooper is a behavioral ecologist and conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. He studies how migratory birds interact with each other and their environments throughout the annual cycle. His research integrates natural history observations with new technology, quantitative tools, and large-scale field experiments to advance the fundamental understanding of ecology and provide resource managers with the information needed to conserve migratory birds. 
​Learn more about Nathan's lab and work here!
Graduate Mentoring:
Jiangyue Wang - PhD student at University of Washington | committee member (Advisor: Laura Prugh)
Alessandra Vidal Meza - PhD student at University of California Santa Barbara | committee member (Advisor: Ruth Oliver)
Matthew Armstrong - PhD student at Virgina Tech | committee member (Advisor: Valentina Gómez-Bahamón)
Laura Farnsworth - MS student at University of Colorado Denver | committee member (Advisor: Mike Wunder)
​Jason Tendler - MS student at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse | committee member (Advisor: Markus Mika)
Tamara Volkmer - PhD Student at University of Konstanz | external examiner (Advisor: Jesko Partecke)