Justin Kitzes

Justin Kitzes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, where he joined the faculty in 2017. His research group, the Kitzes Lab, operates within the Ecology and Evolution group and focuses on measuring, understanding, and predicting biodiversity loss in human-dominated landscapes through innovative bioacoustic approaches.

Education

• Ph.D. (2012) from the University of California, Berkeley under John Harte and Adina Merenlender
• Postdoctoral scholar in the Energy and Resources Group and Data Science Fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, UC Berkeley

Research Interests

Dr. Kitzes' work centers on the question: How are species distributed across complex landscapes, and how do human impacts drive these distributions? Specializing in terrestrial bioacoustics, his lab develops automated acoustic field recording systems and machine learning models to study rare and hard-to-detect species. Current research emphasizes temperate breeding birds and anurans, addressing critical gaps in natural history, conservation, and ecology through computational methods that overcome limitations of traditional survey techniques.

Research Trends

Recent publications (2024-2025) reveal Dr. Kitzes' leadership in merging artificial intelligence with bioacoustic monitoring to tackle global biodiversity challenges. Key advancements include open-source tool development (OpenSoundscape), zero-shot learning for species identification, and rigorous evaluation of forest management impacts on avian populations. His work consistently bridges computational innovation with conservation application, demonstrating how AI can fill critical knowledge gaps while maintaining scientific rigor through reproducible workflows.

Advising and Funding

The Kitzes Lab actively mentors graduate and undergraduate students, with regular openings for new researchers. Dr. Kitzes' work has secured major funding from the National Science Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Geographic, Microsoft, and the Academic Data Science Alliance, supporting large-scale acoustic monitoring projects and methodological innovations.

Lab and Collaborations

The Kitzes Lab pioneers bioacoustic research through tools like OpenSoundscape and the AudioMoth Guide. Current projects include Pennsylvania forest monitoring initiatives and global soundscape synthesis efforts. The lab maintains strong commitments to open science, reproducibility, and community engagement through public datasets, software, and educational resources like "Eavesdropping on Birds" and "On the Record".