Matt is a PhD candidate in Dr. Onja Razafindratsima’s lab in the Department of Integrative Biology. Matt’s research focuses on understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that drive the elevational distributions of tropical forest birds in northeastern Madagascar, with a focus on Madagascar’s endemic vangas. His work also includes a thirty-year analysis of potential distributional shifts due to climate change, and he aims to provide updated vulnerability metrics for many of the bird species found in Madagascar’s northeastern rainforests. Matt’s PhD project involves months of camping in remote rainforest with his team of local guides and Malagasy student assistants, without whom this research would not be possible.