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Personal
I've been interested in nature for my whole life, and I have been an avid
birder since 1992. My fascination with birds and nature has led me to a career
as an evolutionary biologist. I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. at UCLA. My wife
Liz is also studying for her Ph.D. at UCLA. She's in neuroscience. We were
married in August 2007.
I went to Thomas Jefferson High School for
Science and Technology from 1997 to 2001, and graduated from
the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Biology in May 2004. My primary
interests are animal behavior and evolutionary biology. In the fall of 2006 I
began my Ph.D. in the Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. My
primary advisor is
Dr. Greg Grether. In my dissertation research, I plan to examine the evolution of mimicry in a group of Indonesian oriole species.
In 2005 and 2006, I worked with
Dr. Gail Patricelli at UC Davis. I helped with a project examining
acoustic communication in the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus),
a spectacular galliform bird of the American west. We spent February to May
2006 in western Wyoming measuring anthropogenic noise and studying grouse
behavior.
During the summer of 2005 I studied Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes
formicivorus) with Dr. Walt Koenig at the
Hastings Natural History Reservation in Carmel Valley, California. I
spent spring 2005 in Guanare (Estado Portuguesa, western Venezuela), studying
piscivorous birds as part of a stream ecology project. I spent the previous
three summers doing research at biological field stations. I worked with Dr. Chris Floyd at the Rocky Mountain Biological
Laboratory (Gothic, CO) in 2003 and 2004, and with
Dr. Dave Carr at the Blandy
Experimental Farm (Boyce, VA) in 2002. In college, I was also involved in
an international collaboration studying macroevolutionary processes in the
parrots.
Besides birds, biology, and photography, I spend my time listening to jazz and
rock music and playing the guitar and bass. I do a good bit of juggling, and I
helped to start juggling clubs at TJHSST and UVA. I have been a springboard
diver since 1993, and I've been doing gymnastics at UVA, UC Davis and UCLA
since 2001.
To have a look at my C.V., click here.
Have other questions about me or my photography? Send me
e-mail.
Want to see where it all happens?
Here's my brain.
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Photographic
I began photographing nature in 1999, when I bought my first SLR camera at age
sixteen. I have always gravitated towards birds, they are my primary
photographic interest, but I also enjoy photographing other wildlife, as well
as exploring macro, scenic, and experimental imaging. For some information
about the equipment I use, click here. If you'd
like to read about my photographic approach and ethics, click
here.
Publication
All images on this website (and many, many more not online) are available for
editorial and advertising use. Please e-mail me for
details. My images have appeared in printed and web media numerous times. Among
other credits, my work has appeared in Birder's World, New Scientist,
and Science et Vie Junior. My first photo-illustrated feature article,
a piece about Greater Sage-Grouse in Wyoming, appeared in the Summer 2007 issue
of Living Bird. My images will also appear in two forthcoming books,
Speciation in Birds (by Trevor Price; Roberts and Company), and The
Biological Legacy of Lewis and Clark (by David Dalton; University of
Missouri Press).
Awards
In 2006, one of my images was selected as an Image of the Week in the Birder's
World online competition, then went on to become a bimonthly winner, and
finally the Grand Prize winning image for 2006. The same image earned a
Microsoft Merit Award in the 2006 Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Contest,
becoming one of only seven images recognized out of more than 13,000 entries
from 92 countries.
(Photo: Neil Losin)
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