• Curriculum Vitae [PDF]

---

Research Statement

Thomas Albright employs landscape ecological and biogeographic perspectives to understand the causes and consequences of environmental change at local to global scales. His work has examined the role of climate and human dispersal in the spread of invasive plants in the US and China, the effects of extreme weather and disturbance on avian communities across the US, and the rate and patterns of land cover change and desertification in the West African Sahel.
In his research and teaching, Dr. Albright employs a variety of remote sensing platforms, field data, GIS, spatial analysis, and hierarchical modeling. His remote sensing work has included inventories of glacier cover in the Himalaya using synthetic aperture radar, documenting the rise and fall of the world’s largest water hyacinth infestation in East Africa, and characterizing heat waves using thermal remote sensing.
Dr. Albright has a long history of international research, applications, and teaching from over 15 countries and speaks French and Spanish proficiently.

Research Areas of Interest

Conservation Biogeography; ecoclimatology; landscape ecology and remote sensing

Professional Preparation

Postdoctoral Associate, Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007-2010
Ph.D., Zoology (ecology), University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007
Senior Scientist, USGS EROS Center, South Dakota, 1997-2007
M.A., Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1997
B.S., Geography & Cartography/GIS, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993

Selected Publications

Albright TP, AM Pidgeon, CD Rittenhouse, MK Clayton, CH Flather, PD Culbert, BD Wardlow, & VC Radeloff, in press, Combined effects of heat waves and droughts on avian communities across the conterminous United States, Ecosphere.

Albright, TP, AM Pidgeon, CD Rittenhouse, MK Clayton, CH Flather, PD Culbert, & VC Radeloff, in press, Heat waves measured with MODIS land surface temperature data predict changes in avian community structure, Remote Sensing of Environment.

Rittenhouse, CD, AM Pidgeon, TP Albright, PD Culbert, MK Clayton, CH Flather, C Huang, JG Masek, SI Stewart, & VC Radeloff, 2010, Conservation of forest birds: Evidence of a shifting baseline in community structure. PLoS ONE, 5(8): e11938.

Albright TP, AM Pidgeon, CD Rittenhouse, MK Clayton, CH Flather, PD Culbert, BD Wardlow, & VC Radeloff, 2010, Effects of drought on avian community structure, Global Change Biology 16:2158-2170.

Albright, TP, H Chen, LJ Chen, & QF Guo, 2010, The ecological niche and reciprocal prediction of the disjunct distribution of an invasive species: The example of Ailanthus altissima, Biological Invasions, 12:2413–2427.

Rittenhouse CD, AM Pidgeon, TP Albright, PD Culbert, MK Clayton, CH Flather, CQ Huang, JG Masek, & VC Radeloff, 2010, Avifauna response to hurricanes: Regional changes in community similarity, Global Change Biology, 16:905-917.

Albright, TP, DP Anderson, NS Keuler, SM Pearson, & MG Turner, 2009, The spatial legacy of introduction: Celastrus orbiculatus in the southern Appalachians, USA, Journal of Applied Ecology, 46:1229-1238.