Meet Jan Schipper
Jan Schipper, a current Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program (IGERT) student, is working to understand reasons for the decline of jaguars, ocelots and other neotropical cats in Costa Rica.
Schipper’s goal is to improve understanding of threats to endangered species populations worldwide. He says that though Costa Rica is well known for its protected area system, it is necessary to learn to work outside of protected areas and engage with local human populations in order to maintain wildlife populations within protected parks.
His study site includes the Talamanca-Caribe Biological Corridor. It connects the La Amistad International Park with the coastal sector and Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge through a human dominated landscape.
Schipper’s results will give wildlife managers a much better idea of how officials managing the corridor can use limited time and money to maximize species conservation. Solutions may involve adding more fruit trees to reforestation programs and reducing illegal hunting through community-based management efforts.
IGERT is the National Science Foundation's flagship interdisciplinary training program. It educates doctoral-level scientists and engineers by building on the foundations of their disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training.
A new $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation follows an earlier IGERT project funded in 2001 that trained 20 doctoral students through research on biodiversity conservation and sustainable production in agricultural and forested areas in Idaho and Costa Rica.
“The ability to work on a thesis internationally was one of the real selling points for me to join the program,” said Schipper. "The IGERT interdisciplinary experience has opened doors for me that I did not even know existed.”
As director of global mammals assessment for Conservation International, Schipper coordinates with International Union for Conservation of Nature in a joint program called the Biodiversity Assessment Unit. He manages and curates the data and information on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for mammals.
Schipper recently received the William T. Hornaday Conservation Award from the American Society of Mammalogists, recognizing his significant contribution as a student to the conservation of mammals and their habitats.
Schipper’s goal is to improve understanding of threats to endangered species populations worldwide. He says that though Costa Rica is well known for its protected area system, it is necessary to learn to work outside of protected areas and engage with local human populations in order to maintain wildlife populations within protected parks.
His study site includes the Talamanca-Caribe Biological Corridor. It connects the La Amistad International Park with the coastal sector and Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge through a human dominated landscape.
Schipper’s results will give wildlife managers a much better idea of how officials managing the corridor can use limited time and money to maximize species conservation. Solutions may involve adding more fruit trees to reforestation programs and reducing illegal hunting through community-based management efforts.
IGERT is the National Science Foundation's flagship interdisciplinary training program. It educates doctoral-level scientists and engineers by building on the foundations of their disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training.
A new $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation follows an earlier IGERT project funded in 2001 that trained 20 doctoral students through research on biodiversity conservation and sustainable production in agricultural and forested areas in Idaho and Costa Rica.
“The ability to work on a thesis internationally was one of the real selling points for me to join the program,” said Schipper. "The IGERT interdisciplinary experience has opened doors for me that I did not even know existed.”
As director of global mammals assessment for Conservation International, Schipper coordinates with International Union for Conservation of Nature in a joint program called the Biodiversity Assessment Unit. He manages and curates the data and information on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for mammals.
Schipper recently received the William T. Hornaday Conservation Award from the American Society of Mammalogists, recognizing his significant contribution as a student to the conservation of mammals and their habitats.
