Brandon Guell – MS Student
My thesis work is in collaboration with NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Lab and focuses on foraging ecology and behavior of northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) pups on the Pribilof Islands. My project aims to determine whether pups are foraging while nursing and whether pup weaning periods can be determined using stable isotope analysis and stomach content analysis. bguell@ucsd.edu
Eiren Jacobson – PhD student
My interests include passive acoustic monitoring of harbor porpoise populations, and application of environmental DNA methods to cetacean populations.
Trevor Joyce – PhD student
My interests include spatial and behavioral ecology, abundance estimation, and conservation of marine meso- and apex predators (seabirds, marine mammals, large predatory fishes). I am currently studying inter- and intra-specific variation in diet, dive behavior, and spatial habitat use in the deep-diving toothed-whale foraging guild to develop better understanding of niche overlap and partitioning, as well as the relative exposures and responses of different species to anthropogenic threats.
Karlina Merkens – PhD student
I use passive acoustics and habitat modeling to study the ecology of deep diving cetaceans, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. kmerkens@ucsd.edu
Anne Simonis – PhD student
I study biological oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and my research is primarily focused on the high-frequency acoustic signals of dolphins, beaked whales and other odontocetes. As part of my PhD thesis, I am interested in using automatic detection and classification techniques to develop predictive habitat models using long-term passive acoustic recordings in the California Current. I am fascinated by acoustic ecology and the impact sound has on ecosystems, in the ocean and on land. asimonis@ucsd.edu
Kerri Seger – PhD Student
My research interests include passive acoustic monitoring, humpback whales, soundscape analysis, noise mitigation, marine reserves, and repertoire cataloging. In addition, I participate in TIDES (Team for Inclusion and Diversity in Engineering and Science) and on the UCSD triathlon team.
Michael Tift – PhD student
My goal as a scientist is to identify and understand the physiological limits of wildlife. I plan to use this information as a tool for furthering the field of comparative physiology and implementing conservation efforts. Currently, my main interests include understanding more about the physiological mechanisms used by air-breathing, deep-diving marine predators. mtift@ucsd.edu
Alexandra Wright – PhD student
I am a PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and am interested in diving physiology, animal navigation, and migration. awright@ucsd.edu