I'm a professor in the departments of Mathematics & Statistics and of Biology at McMaster University. My interests range widely in spatial, theoretical, mathematical, computational and statistical ecology, evolution and epidemiology; plant community, ecosystem, and epidemic dynamics; and whatever else takes my fancy.

Contact information:

Alternate location/phone: LSB 336, x24376.

I have recently moved from the Department of Biology at the University of Florida. If you were redirected from there and are looking for material that was on my web page there, please contact me. My office number and phone extension are subject to change in the next few months; e-mail is generally the best way to reach me.

Research and ideas

Past and continuing areas of research interest:

• theoretical studies on spatial dynamics of ecological communities and of epidemics (sometimes combined); competition-colonization tradeoffs, successional niches, dispersal, epidemics in homogeneous and heterogeneous landscapes, combined with statistical methods for teasing apart the influence of exogenous and endogenous drivers;
• marine reef fish population dynamics [with Craig Osenberg];
• stock analysis of sea turtle populations, combining genetic data with ecological covariates [with Karen Bjorndal and Alan Bolten];
• applications of generalized linear mixed models
• software for phylogenetic comparative methods

Teaching

• Fall 2010: Math 747, Topics in math biology
• Fall 2011: Stats 4C03/6C03, Generalized linear modesl
• Spring 2010: Stats 756, Biostatistics topics
• Fall 2010: Math 2E03, Introduction to Modeling

Students

Prospective

Prospective graduate students in mathematical/statistical ecology, or empirical ecology/evolution with strong quantitative interests, should contact me by e-mail. I have not taken any students this year (entering fall 2010) but expect to do so next year (fall 2011).

Current

• Mollie Brooks (Biology)
• Zy Biesinger (Fisheries and Biology, co-chair with Bill Lindberg)
• Swati DebRoy (Mathematics, co-chair with Maia Martcheva)

Former

• Jada White, post-doc in the Hay Lab, University of Georgia (2010, Biology: co-chair, Gustav Paulay)
• John Poulsen, Assistant Scientist at Woods Hole Research Center (2009, Biology)
• Toshinori Okuyama, Assistant Professor at National Taiwan University (Zoology)
• Claudia Romero, courtesy faculty, UF Biology (Botany: co-chair, David Jones)
• Greg Babbitt, Visiting Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology (2009, Zoology: co-chair, Rebecca Kimball)

Professional

• My CV (short version, full version)

Book

I have published a book on statistical modeling for ecologists, in R: there is also a wiki for it, with updates, errata, and so forth. Feedback is welcome.

Software and data

• R code: source, Windows binaries
• information and code for spatial moment equations
• measles data
• Errata for Hilborn and Mangel's Ecological Detective: HTML, LaTeX, PDF.