Principal Investigator
Navjot Sodhi (deceased)
Navjot
seeks to understand how human activities modify the planet and in return how human societies
suffer the consequences. His research projects include studies of extinctions, ecosystem functions,
and ecosystem services, and are not restricted to any particular taxon. Navjot also aims to apply his
research towards capacity building in developing countries in the tropics. This he does (and hopes to
do) through writing textbooks that can be accessed for free and giving voice in conservation science
to the ignored (e.g. women and tropical biologists).
Graduate Students
Luke Gibson
Luke
is primarily interested in the ecology and conservation of mammals. He has conducted research in
a variety of temperate and tropical locations, and has published papers on the Channel Island fox and
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep in California, Phayre's leaf monkeys in Thailand, long-tail macaques in
Singapore, and Asiatic lions in India. For his PhD, Luke is studying the conversion of tropical forests
to various land classes and its impact on biodiversity, and he is planning a field project to study the
effect of fragmentation on small mammal and bat communities in Chiew Larn reservoir, southern Thailand.
Bert Harris
Bert
is interested in conservation biology, especially in tropical forests. For his PhD (based at the
University of Adelaide), Bert is studying the effects of climate change and habitat loss on the birds
in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia.
Enoka Kudavidanage
Enoka
has a broad interest in the fields of ecology and conservation of tropical rain forest fauna.
She graduated from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and works at the Department of Natural Resources,
Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. She has conducted research and published on human elephant
conflict management, behavioral ecology of birds and mammals including mixed foraging bird flocks,
and the geophagy of Asian Elephants in Sri Lanka. She is also working with several organizations
to facilitate conservation education and awareness development among local communities and students.
For her PhD, Enoka is studying the effects of land use change and forest fragmentation on the
biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in Sri Lanka using dung beetles as the indicator taxon.
Brett Scheffers
Brett
is interested in the effect of habitat fragmentation on amphibian and reptile communities.
He received his MSc studying urban amphibian ecology at the University of Alberta, Canada and continues
this field of study for his PhD research by examining the effects of urbanization on arboreal amphibian
and reptile communities in Singapore. Brett is also conducting research on arboreal communities in the
Philippines, examining arboreal community structuring across elevation gradients. Besides his research on
herpetofauna, he is broadly interested in predictors of biological diversity, species rediscoveries, and sustainability.