I am a broadly-trained comparative physiologist with expertise in the physiology, neuroscience, behavior and ecology of birds. My work includes studies of free-living birds in various forest habitats of North and South America, to laboratory studies with the zebra finch model of vocal learning and behavioral neurobiology. I initially spent five years as a field technician throughout the western US and South America where I published studies on the energetics of free-living birds and comparative life-history evolution. I also have over 20 years of experience in using the zebra finch model in laboratory studies of embryo energetics to finch behavioral neurobiology.