Judy Shamoun-Baranes

I am ecologist working at the Institute for Biodiversity and 
Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam. Like the
birds I study, I have moved around quite a bit. Born in New York,
I moved to Israel when I was 18 where I studied Biology and Zoology
and became really fascinated with soaring bird migration, the focus
of my PhD.  In 2003 and I moved to the Netherlands to develop models
to predict nocturnal avian migration for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
I find it amazing how birds can fly so efficiently, coping in their own
way with a highly dynamic environment - the air. My research focuses on
understanding how diverse internal and environmental factors influence
bird movement at different scales in space and time and what the
consequences are of their flight behaviour. I often use high resolution
GPS tracking (www.uva-bits.nl) and radar measurements combined with
different modelling approaches to study bird movement. I love working at
the interface of different disciplines and finding ways to apply our
knowledge on flight behaviour, and I find it a great privilege to be
able to peer into the daily lives of birds, virtually.