About Me
A little about me
Hi! I'm Josh. If you want the quick and dirty details of my professional career, check out my Full CV. Below is more of a loose hodgepodge narrative of my experiences in science and a lil' bit of the non-science, too.
As you probably saw on the home page, I'm currently a postdoc with Christie Riehl at Princeton University. My postdoc was originally supposed to address group decision-making in Greater Anis (Crotophaga major), and prior to March 2020, I had made great progress in improving field capture rates and getting adults marked for future behavioral experiments. However, because the pandemic ground international travel to a halt and tossed daycare into seemingly perpetual chaos, I pivoted to lab-based work using ddRAD-seq to delineate genetic mating systems and genetic group structures of birds. So far, I've leveraged this next-gen sequencing approach to re-analyze the genetic mating system of the Black Catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), the species I studied for my MS. Most recently, I've applied this technique to describe the genetic structure of Palmchat (Dulus dominicus) colonies.
Ph.D. days
I completed my Ph.D. in 2018 in Cornell's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior where I was co-advised by Walter Koenig and Mike Webster. My dissertation research concerned the ecology and evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies. I undertook a field study of the Hispaniolan Woodpecker (Melanerpes striatus; pictured below) in the Dominican Republic. The species often breeds colonially, with nests tightly clumped together. The extent of sociality varies within populations: nests sometimes occur singly but more commonly one can find colonies of two or more nests in the same tree or adjacent trees. The record for largest colony so far goes to a clump of apparently 26 active breeding pairs in one tree (observed by Robert Wallace in the 1960's). My fieldwork involved attempting to better understand the intricacies of the woodpecker's social breeding system and social and genetic mating systems with the hopes of understanding what environmental pressures influence this observed variation.
Mastering that science
Before getting myself all busy with that Ph.D., I completed my M.S. at Villanova University with Bob Curry. For my thesis, I undertook the first intensive study of the social system and genetic mating system of the Yucatán Peninsula endemic Black Catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris) at two sites in Quintana Roo, Mexico. I collected data on various aspects of the catbird's natural history, providing the first detailed characterization of its parental care system. I simultaneously used a natural experiment (mainland-island comparison) to assess the effects of breeding density and genetic diversity on the catbird's genetic mating system.
Undergrad and on the way
Before setting off to grad school, I cut my teeth on research during my undergraduate study at Rowan University. I worked on some fairly diverse projects falling under the broad umbrella of what I would call organismal biology. These included: phylogenetics and dental anatomy of fossil perissodactyls (with Luke Holbrook); behavioral and population responses of fiddler crabs to the invasive Phragmites australis in the salt marshes of southern New Jersey (with Mike Grove); and navigation behavior of homing pigeons (with Gerald Hough).
Natural history nut
Over more than a decade of work with Neotropical birds, I have come to appreciate the value of basic natural history. These data provide the foundation and fodder for ecological and evolutionary inquiry. Yet basic breeding biology data are missing for many Neotropical species. As such, I took advantage of my time in the field to collect opportunistic natural history data on such poorly known birds. For example, in the course of my MS work, I made opportunistic observations of endemic breeding birds on Saint Lucia (British West Indies) and in Mexico. Published examples include the first definitive description of the nest and eggs of the Gray Trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis) on St. Lucia, and the first descriptions of the nest, eggs, and breeding phenology of Cozumel Vireo (Vireo bairdi). I have published various other such manuscripts and am currently preparing other natural history observations for publication.
The other stuff
Family
Outside of my scientific exploits, I'm a devoted husband and father of two young'ns who join me in nature exploits through our local environs. I am not so subtly encouraging their burgeoning naturalist tendencies (see my 5yo to the left happily showing off a green frog during an excursion to the Great Swamp).
Art
Aside from my family, nature, and science, I've had a lifelong love of making art. Until a few years ago, I'd primarily only done graphite, gray-scale realistic drawings. But, thanks to the pandemic, a gift from my wife, and a slow-burning inspiration experienced during my doctoral studies, I've recently jumped into the world of watercolor and am also dabbling in other
Miscellany
For a long time, my life revolved around trying to balance my two loves, music and science. In high school, I started a band, Dirty Larry (guess the genre!), with my best friend, and I kept it going through undergrad. I took a year off after finishing my BS to try to "make it" in music, but I found myself back on the path of science in the end.