Our Team

Benjamin Baiser, PI

I am a community ecologist who takes a combined theoretical and empirical approach to understand how ecological communities assemble, change, and collapse. I did my undergraduate degree among the Redwoods at the University of California Santa Cruz and completed my PhD at Rutgers University. In the course of my research, I have worked with bird, plant, invertebrate, and protozoan communities in exciting locations such as the Florida Everglades, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and ombrotrophic bogs across Vermont and Massachusetts.

When I am not trying to unravel the mysteries of biodiversity, I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughters, biking, hiking, and birding. When I can’t get outside, I enjoy listening to music, attempting to play the keyboard, and following the New York Islanders, Mets, Giants, and Knicks. View_CV_

Rob Meyer, PhD student

I’m an ecologist focusing on aspects of spatial ecology, trophic ecology, and fire ecology of species including butterflies, squirrels, and birds. I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Science at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a Master degree in Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University before coming to the University of Florida. While working at Tall Timbers Research Station I worked with the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker on private lands of Florida and Georgia. As a PhD student I will tackle questions related to niche partitioning among the woodpeckers both globally and locally and how fire on the landscape may shape woodpecker assemblages.

Isadora Fluck Essig, PhD student

I’m an ecologist with a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences and an M.Sc. in Animal Biodiversity from the Federal University of Santa Maria (RS, Brazil). Over the years, I have cultivated a deep passion for understanding the patterns and drivers of biodiversity across scales, with a particular appreciation for birds. My master’s thesis explored the factors shaping the distribution of avian species in Amazonia, integrating taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional perspectives. Currently, as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida, I am studying patterns of biodiversity through the lens of intraspecific trait variation (ITV). My goals include refining methods for measuring and analyzing ITV while uncovering its environmental drivers at large scales. In my free time, I enjoy playing Nintendo, reading fantasy books, crocheting, and embroidering.