B.S., Biology, University of Michigan, 1977.

Conservation biology/ tropical biology/ avian and mammalian community ecology/ taphonomy/ ethnobotany/ egyptology

The fauna of Madagascar and the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania have extraordinarily high numbers of endemic species, many of which are threatened with extinction, primarily as a result of human-mediated habitat destruction and disturbance. One aspect of constructing detailed conservation plans for these biota are faunal surveys that document the current flora and fauna in various threatened sites.

Although it is well documented that a wave of extinction affected large-bodied animals about the time that humans colonized the Madagascar, the knowledge of the island's fauna in the recent past is woefully incomplete. To assess the influence of human activity on the fauna in the recent past, another research program is an investigation of sub-fossil vertebrate deposits. Training of, and collaboration with, Malagasy students is a major component of these programs.

Research on the ethnobotany of cultures in North Africa and south-west Asia has been conducted in recent years. Important questions in understanding the evolution of plant resource utilization are whether or not these cultures use the same basic floristic components in similar manners, and if so, whether this is because of information exchange between these cultures, parallel experimentation, or based on chance. Documentation of the uses of various medicinal plants, before many of these practices disappear, is crucial to answering these questions.