معرفی
Jessie Williamson is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Rose Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates. She holds a PhD from the University of New Mexico (UNM), where she remains a Research Associate. In August 2025, she will join the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology & Physiology. Her research integrates evolutionary ecology, ecophysiology, and genomics to study how elevation influences avian migration, physiology, and genomic divergence, with a focus on mountain birds in the Andes and North America.
Education: PhD in Biology at UNM under Dr. Chris Witt; Research Associate at UNM's Museum of Southwestern Biology. Key research themes include elevational niche-shift migration, high-altitude physiological adaptations, and the role of parasites in avian ecology. She has conducted fieldwork across the U.S. and South America, combining genomic, physiological, and ecological approaches.
Research highlights include studies on giant hummingbird speciation, PFAS contamination in wildlife, and the ecological drivers of avian parasite communities. Her work frequently bridges lab-based and field studies, such as developing lightweight backpack harnesses for hummingbird tracking. Recent publications explore topics like blood oxygen transport in high-altitude birds and cryptic species divergence linked to migration patterns.
Notable awards include the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship and Rose Fellowship. She actively contributes to open science through GitHub repositories (e.g., OLWA-BHCO project analyzing warbler-cowbird interactions). Future work at UW will expand her investigations into elevational migration's evolutionary and physiological implications.
