About me
I am a landscape ecologist who is broadly interested in the effects of land-use change and
urbanization on the maintenance of ecological and social function, at regional, global, and
international scales. Currently, I am a Smith Conservation Fellow at the Graduate School of
Design at Harvard, where I study how the growth of cities worldwide affects conservation
planning by organizations like The Nature Conservancy. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral
Fellow at Harvard Forest, studying the causes and consequences of land-use change and
forest harvesting in New England at a landscape scale, and a graduate student at Duke
University researching the causes and consequences of anthropogenic forest fragmentation
in an urban setting.
This website is my attempt to bring together two disparate parts of my life. You’ll find links to
my scientific papers, which take up the bulk of my professional time. I also love to read and
think and write much more broadly, about sustainable development and democracy, and
you'll find links to these more opinionated (and less scientifically certain) pieces at my blog
or in links to my published essays. I strongly belief that a scientist can also be an intellectual
and an activist, as long as he makes clear to his audience which hat he is wearing at any
particular moment! If you find anything you read here thought-provoking, please drop me a
line: I would be honored to hear what you think.
