As a recent graduate (2020-2025), Finote’s work focused on the patterns and consequences of coextinctions – the loss of species due to the loss of others on which they depend – and how these dynamics contributed to broader biodiversity loss. She studied the cascading effects of large herbivore extinctions on dung beetle communities and ecosystem services in Kenya, using a combination of DNA barcoding metabarcoding, field surveys, and small- and large-scale experiments.

As part of his PhD research in the Lab (2019-2025), Joel’s focused on how large mammalian herbivores structure plant communities, primarily through the lens of their diets; how dynamic are herbivore diets in time and space; and what do their diet choices mean for their own population dynamics and their ability to coexist with other species. He is currently a postdoc in Carla Staver’s Lab at Princeton University.

Micah was a postdoc in the Lab from 2021-2023. While in the Lab, he focused on food partitioning by large herbivores in West African forests, specifically across several protected areas in Nigeria and Cameroon. Micah is currently an Assistant Faculty at Howard University.

As a Smith Postdoctoral Fellow from 2021-2023, Maia’s research in the Pringle Lab focused on combining molecular techniques and community ecology to inform restoration strategies for the Marianas fruit bat (Pteropus mariannus) and its habitats on the island of Guam. Maia is currently a Lecturer at the University of Canterbury’s School of Earth and Environment.

As a HMEI postdoc in the Pringle Lab (2021-2022), Alex’s research focused on how predator-prey interactions influence ecosystem functions within coastal salt marsh ecosystems and mangrove forests. Among other things, their work involved an assessment of ecosystem properties and health that incorporated eDNA techniques to evaluate soil microbial community composition. Alex is now an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. Website

Rafael joined the Lab (2019-2022) as part of the inaugural cohort of Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows. Applying his expertise in above-ground terrestrial eDNA techniques, Rafael’s research investigated foundational ecological theories of the effects of predation in small Bahamian islands, and trophic interactions of vertebrates and invertebrates in the seasonal pools of Gorongosa National Park. He is now working at Elysium Health as a Bioinformatics Scientist.

Arjun was a PhD student in the Lab from 2015-2022 and recently started a postdoc at Wake Forest University, working with T. Michael Anderson. For his dissertation, Arjun’s projects included a factorial field experiment of herbivory in a floodplain ecosystem, a simple mathematical model of herbivory, and a study that paired the role of plant traits and animal body size in structuring the diets of large mammalian herbivores. Website

As a NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Lab from 2018-2022, Meredith’s research focused on how prey mitigate risk from multiple interacting predators, particularly in recovering ecosystems. Her work also involved developing new prototypes for wildlife monitoring technologies like BoomBox, an open source device that turns camera traps into Automated Behavioral Response systems! She is now a Conservation Scientist at Yale’s Center for Biodiversity and Global Change. Website

Matt was a postdoc in the Lab from 2019-2021. While in the Lab, he focused on examining large herbivore diets to unravel the relationship among diet quality and diet diversity across the grazer-browser continuum and compare diet quality among species to better understand differences in species recovery. Matt is now a Principal Wildlife Research Biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

As the former Lab Manager (2019-2021), Megan contributed to several papers in the lab as well as spearheaded a multi-species, ecological and evolutionary study on mammalian gut microbiomes. Megan has recently started her PhD at UC San Diego. We look forward to continuing collaborating with Megan and seeing her science develop!

Matt is a former PhD student (2016-2021) and current Assistant Professor at the University of California, Merced. His work in the Pringle Lab focused on dietary selection and switching in Gorongosa National Park, and he continues to focus on how diets structure savanna ecosystems.

Michiel was a postdoc in the Pringle and Tarnita Labs from 2018 to 2019 and is now an Assistant Professor at Leiden University. During his postdoc, he continued his work in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem focusing on the niche partitioning among large herbivores and termites and how this is expected to change in the future.

Ana Gledis was a research technician with the Lab from 2017–2019 and is currently working as a Jr Research Officer at the National Administration of Conservation Areas in Mozambique. She worked on several projects related to understanding the restoration of the Gorongosa ecosystem.

Jen was a PhD student in the Lab from 2013—2018 and is now a photographer, explorer, and naturalist working for National Geographic and others. Website

As a postdoc in the Pringle and Tarnita Labs from 2015 until 2018, Jess led a multi-species behavioral, ecological, and population-genetic study of termites in Kenya, to understand how competition influences population structure and spatial self-organization. She also is the first to work out molecular techniques for studying termite diets! Jess is now an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at San Jose State University.

Johan, a world-class molecular ecologist, was a postdoc in the Lab from 2016 to 2018. Building on our lab’s prior work using DNA metabarcoding to study large-herbivore diets in Africa, Johan led (and continues to lead!) a pioneering effort to characterize large-mammal food webs throughout southeastern Africa. In the meantime, Johan is an Associate Professor at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

After completing his PhD at Harvard, Chris joined the Pringle and Tarnita Labs as a postdoc from 2015 to 2017. With us, he spearheaded an exciting project focusing on how termite mounds in African savannas generate spatial patterns that propagate throughout the ecosystem. Chris is now a Biology Postdoc with the US Army ERDC CRREL. Website

Tyler came into the Lab as a phenom out of Brown University. During his PhD work at Princeton, Tyler made a number of fascinating discoveries about the effects of elephants and other large herbivores on plant communities and plant antiherbivore defenses in African savannas. You can now find Tyler as an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame.

Josh was the inaugural Pringleton, our first PhD Student. His PhD work on the effects of armed conflict on wildlife populations and ecological dynamics was first-rate and first-of-its-kind, and Josh helped to spark the then-nascent ecological research program in Gorongosa National Park. Josh is now a Chief Scientist at NatureServe.

Tyler was with us from 2013 to 2017, first as a Pringleton postdoc and later as a TNC NatureNet Fellow. He left Princeton to join the faculty at Brown University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and a Fellow in the Institute at Brown for Environment & Society. Tyler built the Pringleton molecular lab from the ground up and led our first forays into DNA metabarcoding; we still work with him on projects in Kenya.

Former postdoc Ryan Long (2013-2014) is now an Associate Professor at the University of Idaho! We have yet to meet his match in terms of expertise in mammalian physiological ecology, movement ecology, and their interface. We continue to collaborate with Ryan on a long-term NSF-funded study on the ecology, behavior, and energetics of spiral-horned antelopes (that’s bushbuck, nyala, and kudu for you big-mammal noobs) in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

Former Lab Manager Patty Chen (2013-2015) is now completing her MD at Boston University School of Medicine. She was a fantastic lab manager and a key contributor to several papers. She is going to be a life-saving physician someday soon, and we were very fortunate to have her in our orbit for a few years.