The University of Texas at El Paso
Department of Biological Sciences 500 W University El Paso, Texas 79902 ojohnson AT utep.edu henicorhina AT gmail.com |
I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Harvey Lab at the University of Texas at El Paso, where my research seeks to understand the processes that govern speciation of birds in species-rich tropical environments. I use macroevolutionary and comparative phylogenetic methods to bridge the gap between fine- and broad-scale biogeographic patterns among species. I am also interested in applying phylogenetic and morphological data to poorly-known species complexes to study biogeography and inform systematics and taxonomy.
My research combines natural history, museum specimens, community science databases, and molecular data to address these questions. I am actively involved in field work, both in the desert Southwest and (pre-covid) in the western Amazon Basin, focused on obtaining and preserving specimens for museum collections, obtaining natural history data — especially sound recordings and photos — and field inventories, and contributing these data to community science databases like eBird and the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds. Previously, I worked in the Brumfield lab at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. In January 2024, I will be starting a position as Assistant Professor of Ornithology at Florida Gulf Coast University. |