Michael Schrimpf
Postdoctoral Fellow
Expertise
Seabirds • Polar Ecology • Species Distributions • eBird
I am working on a project in partnership with Viking Expeditions to learn how eBirders detect seabirds from ships. Our goal is to develop better ways to map where birds are found on the open ocean, to improve how we collect data at sea, and better conserve species like albatross, petrels, and penguins!
My long path to studying seabirds in remote regions (like the Antarctic) began when I was a first-year undergraduate, with a broad interest in biology and ecology, but before I had developed a love of birds. I began exploring natural ecosystems on and around my college campus, and eventually got interested in birding. I combined that passion with experience in aquatic ecology that I learned from my professors, and decided to look for ways to watch and learn more about seabirds. That decision set me on a path to working on seabird colonies, time on a sailing ship teaching oceanography, and eventually to Ph.D research in Antarctica.
Education
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University
M.Sc., Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
B.A., Biology and German, Lawrence University
