Collaboration Networks

I use ecological network analysis to help understand the complexities of tropical forest communities. Ecological networks represent direct and indirect links between different species, individuals, and/ or organisms. Nodes on the networks represent the organisms and edges represent the links between them. Networks can depict social, trophic, competitive, or spatial interactions.

The majority of my current research focuses on constructing ecological networks that represent dietary interactions between animals and trees in Afrotropical forests. What species form these networks? What environmental, evolutionary, and morphological factors drive the network structure? How do the networks relate to ecological function? Network analysis helps empower me to address pressing questions in ecology. 

As a 5th year Ph.D. student, I am busy writing up my dissertation. While combing through edits on Overleaf and pondering manuscript organization, I constantly draw motivation from my colleagues both near and far. I am lucky to work with a large, multidisciplinary team of experts to study tropical forest trophic interaction networks. Together, we form a different kind of network; interacting both directly and indirectly, our collaboration network creates a rich and productive intellectual community. 

The below diagram is a network representation of the coauthors on my Ph.D. dissertation chapters. Each node represents a researcher, each edge represents shared co-authorship on a paper/ chapter related to my dissertation, and edges are weighted by the number of papers/ chapters. This figure does not represent the full scope of my collaborations (there are many other people who enrich my intellectual development through projects and mentorship outside the scope of my dissertation!). It does, however, highlight that my Ph.D. dissertation is far from an individual pursuit. I am deeply grateful for the unique contributions of every node. 

Stay tuned for our forthcoming papers!