About Me
I'm an IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, a Research Associate of the Field Museum, and an adjunct at Haskell Indian Nations University. I grew up in Western Colorado, where I was always interested in the outdoors and became particularly enthralled with birds and birding during my first Christmas Bird Count when I saw a Brown Creeper Certhia americana working its way up the furrows in the bark on a cottonwood tree Populus fremontii. After graduating from Fruita Monument High School in 2009, I attended Louisiana State University (Bachelor of Science 2013), the University of Kansas Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (Master of Arts 2016; advisor Dr. Jorge Soberón), and the University of Chicago's Committee on Evolutionary Biology (Master of Science 2019, Doctor of Philosophy 2021; advisor Dr. John Bates). Since that time, I have transformed my hobby into a profession, having performed bird-focused surveys and studies in the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea. In 2013, I co-founded the Biodiversity Initiative to help study the ecology and biology of birds in Central Africa.
My research continues to focus on biogeography, phylogeography, and theoretical ecology, often with birds as my model subjects. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about research, birds, etc. at jccooper [at] ku [dot] edu.
My research continues to focus on biogeography, phylogeography, and theoretical ecology, often with birds as my model subjects. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about research, birds, etc. at jccooper [at] ku [dot] edu.
