Cornell grads in the wider world

Daria Sorokina, Ph.D. ‘08

Where Numbers and Birds Intersect

Courtesy Daria Sorokina

“I work with mathematical abstractions. My program runs for several hours and finally produces a plot with non-parallel curves. And I know that my algorithms have just converted gigabytes of abstract numbers into something describing real living birds. This is a very exciting moment.”

After finishing her Ph.D. at Cornell with Leon Levy Foundation support, Daria is now doing postdoctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University, studying occurrences of Salmonella at meat processing plants. She’s found that many techniques developed for bird data are useful in other areas.

Stephen Williams

Gary Langham, Ph.D. ‘03

Protecting California Birds on Land and at Sea

“I’ve always loved teaching, and this is one way to reach many, many people plus help set the bird conservation agenda for the entire state of California and beyond.”

Gary is the lead scientist at Audubon California. He helped Audubon’s successful drive to ban lead ammuntion in the California Condor’s range, helped write a study of how climate change will affect California birds, and is leading the effort to designate Important Bird Areas for seabirds.

Dana Hawley, Ph.D. ‘05

Looking at Small Birds for Big Answers

Bonnie Fairbanks

“The more we understand birds, the more we appreciate them, and the more likely we are to try to protect them.”

Dana, an assistant professor of biology at Virginia Tech, is continuing research begun during her doctoral work at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, studying the highly-contagious eye disease that first showed up among House finches in 1994. She is trying to learn how and why diseases emerge in the wild, why only certain species get sick and others don’t, and what physical, psychological, and social factors play a role. She also hopes that if we find some of these answers, they’ll also apply to humans.

Dan Lebbin, Ph.D. ‘07

Field Guide to Conservation

“There are plenty of things we can do as individuals. It comes down to lifestyle decisions ranging from what kind of paper products we use to what kind of food we eat. Most people are not really aware of how these choices impact birds.”

Dan is a conservation biologist at the American Bird Conservancy. He’s conducted field research projects in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. He’s currently writing a field guide to bird conservation for the American Bird Conservancy.

Catherine Depeine, ‘06

Wrens to Monkeys

Mariano Barros

“We need to regain an awe of the animal world.”

Catherine is a graduate student at the State University of New York. Since her graduation from Cornell, she’s studied common marmoset vocalizations with the National Institute of Child Health and Development and studied owl monkey vocalizations in Argentina.

Leila Hatch, Ph.D. ‘04

Applying Science in the Real World

Michael Thompson

“Ocean protection will be a major frontier for the next five to ten years. We’re either going to get it right or have major repercussions having to do with climate and feeding the world’s populations, not to mention loss of species and habitats we know so little about.”

Leila is a NOAA Marine Ecologist at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, researching whale behavior and communication. She studies movements of commercial and recreational vessels, and how they intersect the movements of whales. She also spent a year as a legislative fellow for the House of Representatives Resources Committee in Washington, D.C.