Professional Achievements

Conservation Policy: Spearheaded successful initiatives to increase the level of protection afforded Great Bustards globally via the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and initiated a period of Coordinated Action for this species in Asia, in conjunction with the Mongolian Government and the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia. Played a key role in facilitating decision-making on new protections for the Little Bustard in Asia via CMS

Key Scientific Discoveries: Identified unprecedented long-distance migratory behavior of the eastern subspecies of Great Bustard, and described the genetic divergence of this taxon

Funding Success: Over forty conservation and research grants awarded from sources including the National Geographic Conservation Trust, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Disney Conservation Fund, US NSF Graduate Research Program and Title VIII Research Program

Capacity Building: Mentored and supported Mongolian and Uzbek masters students; led a multi-year science outreach program with rural Mongolian schoolchildren, a dozen of whom advanced to university degrees in biology and ecology

Service: Organized a conference attended by participants from nine countries on the conservation of Asian populations of Great Bustard, in collaboration with the Mongolian Government and the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia

Media Outreach: Produced a documentary on bustards for Mongolian audiences, which aired on national television. This film was been translated into Chinese and distributed on multiple online platforms

Public Speaking: Have a wide range of experiences sharing research and conservation stories with audiences ranging from academics to government representatives and the general public, including speaking on the National Geographic stage

Spatial Analysis: Developed frameworks and tools using statistical and GIS software to model a range-wide dataset of over 14,000 observations of the American Pika, for research published in Nature Climate Change