My research interests are broad, spanning the fields of plant ecology, evolutionary biology, quantitative ecology, science education, and environmental science. Prior to my time here, I was an Assistant Professor at Drew University, where my research lab explored and compared the reproductive habits of native and invasive species in the genus Rubus, which includes the blackberries and raspberries. Our central questions were "Why do these plants fruit the ways they do?" and "What will they do instead when (not if) the environment changes?" What unites all my interests is the pursuit of great data. With great data comes great potential knowledge gain; however, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and environmental scientists like me often want answers to such big (and often intractable) questions that the quality and quantity of data we need is often unattainable. I'm interested in how quantitative tools, including more complex models, citizen science efforts, and simulation modeling, can help us bridge that gap to start addressing some of our most pressing big mysteries.
