Dr. Jeff White

Dr. Jeff White is a seabird ecologist and conservation biologist specializing in foraging ecology and population dynamics. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health in the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and a Postdoctoral Affiliate with the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health. He has been working with the Tawaki Project studying New Zealand’s crested penguins since 2017. He received his MS from Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia, USA) and his PhD from the University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida, USA). 

Dr. White began working with penguins during his Masters research when he joined the Tawaki Project studying the foraging ecology of the elusive Tawaki/Fiordland Penguin in southwestern New Zealand. During his PhD, he expanded his work on Tawaki using stable isotope analysis to understand whether dietary flexibility is a key component to the stability of Tawaki populations. He also evaluated population dynamics and gene flow in Erect-crested Penguins and Eastern Rockhopper Penguins in the New Zealand subantarctic in an effort to understand their dramatic declines. He is currently working to evaluate the decline of Eastern Rockhoppers throughout the New Zealand region through a combination of movement tracking, dietary analysis, population genetics, and disease ecology. Finally, he is working with the Falklands Wildlife Health team to characterize the ecological context of the spread of HPAI in penguins and other seabirds in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. Overall, his research aims to provide a framework to evaluate the conservation needs and implementation of management policies to protect penguins.