a b c def g hij k l mnopqr s tuvwxyz#

Hall Of Fame

Rhiannon Jakopak (former UHURU project manager, Mpala)

As the kids tweet these days, Rhiannon Jakopak "AKA RPJ, AKA Rocket Propelled Jakopak" oversaw UHURU like a boss in 2016. She conducted independent work with Jake on dispersal limitation as an alternative to Brown's resource breadth hypothesis. Rhiannon began her MSc at the University of Wyoming in 2017, working on dispersal and population genetics of mule deer. In this photo, she is handling one of two four-toed hedgehogs captured in UHURU, ever, with equal parts trepidation and exuberance.

Current position: Outreach Coordinator and Research Scientist, University of Wyoming's Haub School

Show Details

Roché Espadron (former Undergraduate Wyoming Research Scholar, UW)

I was born and raised in New Orleans, LA where I received my first bachelor's in biology from Southern University at New Orleans. Unlike most in the wildlife field, I did not grow up in the outdoors. Instead, I was a city kid that was always curious about the wonders of the natural world. During my time at UW, I had the opportunity to work on independent research linking skull morphometrics from museum and trapper-harvested specimens to sex and age ratios in marten populations. I love exploring national parks, hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing.

Show Details

Saeideh Esmaeili (former PhD student, UW)

Saeideh Esmaeili truly is a rennaissance woman of southwest Asian mammals, working on goitered gazelle, Indian gazelle, sand cat, and Asiatic cheetah before completing a superb dissertation on the ecological and socio-economic correlates surrounding the migrations of a globally-endangered equid, the onager.

Channeling John Wayne (or Jeff Bridges, if you prefer), Saeideh personified true grit: she once navigated a financial transfer between five(!) countries to support the first GPS collaring effort of an ungulate in her home country of Iran. At a postdoc at Colorado State University, she now partners with the IUCN Equid Specialist Group, employing her talents in movement modeling to conserve equids across the globe.

Current position: Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University

Show Details

Sarah Weiner (former UHURU project manager, Mpala)

Sarah Weiner was the latest in an illustrious succession of UHURU project managers. In a karmic twist of fate, she conducted independent research with Felicia Keesing, Jake's first mentor in Kenya. Side note: Sarah's threshold for pain stemming from pouched mouse bites is the stuff of legends.

Current position: Program Assistant, Mount Kenya Trust

Show Details

Scott Carpenter (former project manager, Ol Pejeta)

Scott Carpenter was the project manager extraordinnaire for the big-headed ant research, and conducted work on how invasion influences nest success of social weavers to boot. In this photo, he bows in deference to a curious silverback.

Current position: PhD Student, Yale University

Show Details

Stephen Kinyua (former MSc student, Moi U)

Stephen Kinyua was the inaugural project leader on the UHURU small-mammal sampling. Steve was advised by Jake and Paul Webala at Moi University and now serves as a Project Manager for Wildlife Cybercrime for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Current position: Project Manager, International Fund for Animal Welfare

Show Details

Tobias Otieno (former MSc student, Karatina U)

Tobias Otieno earned his MSc in Wildlife Management at Moi University in Kenya, coadvised by Paul Webala and Jake, with lots of collaboration with Adam. Toby worked to understand how the perceived risk of predation affects diet selectivity of impala and Guenther's dik-dik, two abundant ungulates throughout Laikipia.

Current position: Research Manager, Ewaso Lions

Show Details

Violet Gatonye (former UHURU project manager, Mpala)

Violet Gatonye worked closely with Leo to build and maintain dispersal barriers around South UHURU, testing the hypothesis that abundant, widespread species exhibit self-sustaining populations in the absence of rescue effects.

Current position: Secretariat, Kenya Wetlands Forum, East African Wildlife Society

Show Details

<< < 1 [2]