KRISTA N OSWALD

Throughout my research career, I have been an active participant in diverse collaborations and communities and have developed a deep understanding of the interactions between birds and their environments. I initially graduated with a BA in World History (University of Calgary) with the aim of studying environmental law. I have always been obsessed with experiencing different areas of the world, and I took a year to work abroad in Australia as I applied for law schools. While on an overland trek from Cape Town to Nairobi, I realized my true passion was to focus more directly on environmental conservation through STEM research. As I often put it, as a child I wanted to wear the red of Star Trek command, but it turns out my heart wanted to wear the blue shirt of a science officer. I thus returned to studies and achieved a BSc Honours in Biology (Dalhousie University).

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My undergraduate work looked at how noise effects food delivery in nestling Tree Swallows and led me to appreciate birds both as intrinsically wonderful and also as ambassadors for scientific study. I then did a short internship with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (Washington, D.C.). While at the Smithsonian I applied to graduate programs abroad, first looking into South Africa as the place where I had first realized my true interest in biology and conservation. Success! I found an amazing team and research project trying to figure out why Cape Rockjumper populations were declining in their limited mountain range in South Africa. I stayed five years in South Africa, where I attained a MSc (Nelson Mandela University) and PhD (Rhodes University) in avian ecology.

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I am currently a postdoctoral researcher studying interactions between birds and their modified environment at Ben-Gurion University's desert campus in the Negev. Working with Profs. Uri Roll and Oded Berger-Tal I am using a new high-tech tracking system (ATLAS) to look at how modified habitats affect the behaviour and reproduction of desert birds, amid a matrix of human-altered habitats. It's already yielded some amazing insights, and I will spend the next year getting all this information out to the world while looking for the next steps.

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In my free time I love travel, photography, and travel photography (see my instagram), my cat (Lieutenant Nyota Uhura), occasionally my other cat (Hyperion), my new cat (Endymion), good food, camping, and knitting sweaters.