B.S. Biology, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana

I joined the PERL team in the fall of 2009. My research will focus on the process of neurogenesis and neuron retention in the medial cortex of the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus). Medial cortex size has been associated with aspects of spatial ecology in new world vipers like C. oreganus. I will be further exploring this association by imposing steroid hormone and translocation treatments on C. oreganus in the Carrizo Plain area of California and noting the subsequent effects upon brain morphology. My broader interests include the impacts that snake predators impose upon mammalian prey, thermoregulatory and spatial ecology of reptiles, and reptile and amphibian conservation.