Lab Members
“Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they're yours.”
― Richard Bach
Michael W. McCoy
Associate Director FAUs School of Environmental Coastal and Ocean Sustainability (ECOS)
Professor of Quantitative Ecology - FAU Dept. of Biology and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Lab PI
I develop and implement experimental and statistical approaches to link empirical data to ecological and evolutionary theory. I typically take a mechanistic approach to understand how individual traits (e.g. size, stage and phenotype) scale up to influence population and community level processes and spatial coupling across ecosystems. I have broad interests and my research is very question driven and integrative. As a result I have worked on wide variety of topics, organisms and in a wide array of ecological systems. In my spare time I enjoy running ultramarathons, hiking, camping, traveling, and spending time with my family.
Jessica Wimmer
PhD Student
Jessica graduated from the University of South Florida with concurrent Bachelor degrees in Environmental biology and Environmental policy; with a minor in geographic information systems and technology. She is interested in the ecology and evolution of nonindigenous species, especially reptiles. She is still developing her broader dissertation research program but is off to a great start. This summer she has initiated a study to understand the population structure of Argentine black and white tegus throughout Florida.
Natalia Jaworski
PhD Student
Born and raised in Chicago, earned her BS in Biological Sciences from Illinois State University and an MS in this Quantitative Ecology Lab at FAU. Natalia is returning to the QEL at FAU to pursue a PhD. Natalia is interested in understanding the effects of climate change on species interactions and food web dynamics. Natalia enjoys spending time in or on the water, traveling, and napping.
Jumar Francis
PhD Student
Jumar received his BS in Biochemistry at Truman College. He is interested in conservation and ecology of coastal marine ecosystems. Jumar is still developing his dissertation research, but in general he is motivated to better understand how changes in habitat complexity and changes in abiotic conditions affect species interactions with a particular interest in understanding how habitat structure affects organismal responses to multiple stressor effects.
Isabela Beneli Salina Fernandes
MS Student
Isabela received her B.S. in Biology from Florida Atlantic University. For her MS research she is interested in understanding how climate variability and microplastics pollution is affecting marine ecosystems. In her spare time Isablea enjoys training for bodybuilding competitions, traveling and trying new recipes.
Jada Brown
MS Student
Jada is MS research is focused on the application of advanced machine learning and computational tools to long term data to gain important insights about ecosystem functions.