PEOPLE | Aubrypopecollab

Principal Investigator

Dr. Lise M. Aubry, Associate Professor

Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at CSU & Graduate Program in Ecology

I am originally from France and received my BS and MS degrees from the Universite Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. I conducted my dissertation work at the Max Plank Institute for demographic research in Germany where I studied life history trade-offs in vertebrates. I then moved to Utah State University to pursue postdoctoral research with a focus on wildlife management and human-wildlife conflicts. I then expanded my research program to include climate change impacts on wildlife. I moved to Colorado State University in 2017 to join the Fish Wildlife & Conservation Biology Department where I received tenure in 2021.

Google Scholar

CSU webpage

Global Biodiversity Center

GDPE program

Meet the Team

Current Lab

Robyn Thomas, MS student (2024-2026)

Foraging Ecology and Demography of Emperor Geese in Alaska.

About Robyn: I am a first year master’s student in the Aubry Lab studying the population dynamics and wintering foraging ecology of emperor geese. My study sites are Shemya Island in the western Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island, both in Alaska. I hope to learn more about the winter survival of this species and what factors could be causing population fluctuations at the extreme edges of the emperor goose’s wintering range. I collaborate with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for my field work. I really enjoy the troubleshooting and problem solving that is involved when working in remote places in Alaska, especially during the winter. We use rocket nets in the intertidal zone to capture and band these geese and we really have to clue into their behavior and get creative in order to have success. I learn new things from my environment, my field team, and the birds every day!

Gallen Burrell, PhD student (2024-2028)

Co-advised with Dr. Ana Davidson

Ecological and demogaphic signatures of plague resistance in prairie dogs

Galen grew up in the Midwest, earning his B.S. at the University of Michigan and his M.S. in Indiana, where he studied urban bat communities. Galen is interested in population ecology, with an emphasis on conservation and disease dynamics.

For his Ph.D. project, Galen is working with the Aubry lab and Dr. Ana Davidson to study the evolution of plague resistance in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). He is also collaborating with Dr. Loren Cassin Sackett from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to gather data across the range of black-tailed prairie dogs.

Alex Badeaud, PhD student (2024-2028)

Co-advised with Prof. Liba Pejchar

Consequences of global change for migratory songbirds: using bird banding to evaluate shifts in phenology and data equity

I am an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD student in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. My research interests are currently focused on topics related to human disturbance and their effects on bird communities. I am passionate about increasing accessibility within STEM and I aim to use my research as a platform to promote scientific engagement and education within the communities I work with.

Emma Schillerstrom, MS student (2026-2028)

Co-advised with Prof. Bill Kendall

Demography and monitoring assessment of bottlenose dolphins in Biscayne Bay

Emma is a master’s student researching the population demography of the Biscayne Bay population of bottlenose dolphins using mark-recapture methods and dorsal fin photo-identification. Her academic background is in marine biology, mathematics, and computer programming. She earned her B.S. in Miami where she spent her time conducting fieldwork on shark-tagging vessels and developing research skills in environmental toxicology and marine genomics. Emma has years of experience in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, managing wildlife monitoring data for National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska as well as creating agency-wide dashboards and tools utilizing federal databases. An avid R and Python user, she is broadly interested in applying data science and quantitative methods to assess anthropogenic impacts on marine megafauna and to achieve international conservation goals.

Past Graduate Students and Postdocs

Shelley Nelson, PhD

Human-Black Bear Interactions

and bear fitness consequences

Rachel Kanaziz, MS

Demography and Stress Physiology of Ground Squirrels

Jarod Raithel, PhD

Black bear population dynamics and management

Caylee Falvo, MS

Climate Change impacts on Hibernators

Shelley Nelson, Postdoc

Ground Squirrel Life History

Doug Eifler, Research scientist

Whiptail Ecology

Past undergraduate students

I work with many undergraduate students including field technicians, honors students, and undergraduate research fellows. Here are some of the great students I have had the chance to work with on research projects.