I'm starting a postdoc at Cornell in September!

Actual footage of me when I found out I'd been awarded the Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellowship.

As the title says -- I'm incredibly excited to have accepted an offer from the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability to start a two-year postdoctoral researcher position in Ithaca, NY. The position starts in September, and I'll be working with both Dr Steve Osofsky at Cornell and Dr  Robin Naidoo at the WWF on a project simulating elephant movements on a southern African savanna to inform sustainable conservation and land management practices in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA).

I am most excited for, in no particular order:

• the chance to dive into more complicated computational challenges
  
• to meet and network with a whole new group of scientists at Cornell
  
• to work with two fabulous researchers who have already shown me they've got my best interests at heart, care deeply about conservation, and can help me learn more about the world of conservation
  
• to follow a career path bent on conserving endangered animals, unique landscapes, and important ecosystems, all while keeping human lifestyles, health, and cultural significance at the center of my work
  
• to join a postdoc program in a cohort of passionate fellow scientists from different fields
  
• snow and gorges and beautiful fall colors and making new friends in a new city
  

Stay tuned for more updates about this project as the date approaches! For now, I've got to focus on actually finishing this dissertation, since I've now compressed my timeline in half. I can do it, though!