Kerry A. Brown

Biographical information

Kerry received his B.S. in Biology form Howard University in 1995. He received his Masters in Applied Ecology in 1998 and Ph.D. in 2004 in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University. Research for his Masters project was conducted in Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar. He conducted his Ph.D. thesis work in Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. Kerry held a Teaching fellowship from 1998-2002, a Turner dissertation fellowship in 2004, and is currently a Frontiers Science Fellow at Columbia University.

Kerry's research focuses on how habitat modification influences vegetation compositiion and forest structure in tropical systems. Kerry addresses questions about this topic by considering processes at the landscape, community, and population-levels. He integrates field collected data to build species distribution and habitat suitability models using GIS/remote sensing, and MAXENT software programs. Kerry is currently working on projects with researchers at Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Zululand, and the University of Antananarivo. His collaborations allow him to explore the complex feedback mechanism that exists between socio-economic factors, anthropogenic disturbances, non-native plant spread, and tropical forest biodiversity.