Dr. Isaac VanDiest

PHD FELLOW ALUMNI    |   Global Change Center

VT Alumni July 2024  •   Biological Sciences  

Advisor: Dr. Kendra Sewall

ivandiest@vt.edu

Isaac VanDiest successfully defended his PhD dissertation in July 2024. His dissertaiton, "Urbanization affects environmental conditions for developing songbirds" reflects his research focus on impacts of anthropogenic change across levels of biological organization from physiology to communities.

While at Virginia Tech Isaac was a member of Dr. Kendra Sewall’s lab, where he focused on the differences in the behavior of urban and rural song sparrows. His dissertation focused on how nestling development is affected by differences in adult food choice, showcasing the impact that urbanization has on even the hardiest of species.  Isaac received a B.S in terrestrial wildlife biology from the University of Montana in 2016. While taking just about every terrestrial class that had a field lab, he began to develop a passion for field work. During his undergraduate degree Isaac assisted on bio-acoustic projects focused on how birds communicate differing threat levels to a mixed flock, and how this communication propagated through different habitat types. He also spent two summers evaluating the nesting success of the Lewis’ woodpecker in burned vs. riparian forests.

After graduating with his undergraduate degree, Isaac worked for the U.S. Forest Service on the Malheur National Forest as a field technician studying nesting success, occupancy, and abundance of white-headed, black-backed, and Lewis’ woodpeckers. The question being asked was: “How does salvage logging affect woodpecker populations in burned forest?”, which had great conservation implications that the public did not always agree with. Seeing this disconnect between the science, resource management strategies, and public opinion, Isaac joined the IGC with the hope to gain the necessary skills to bridge the gaps in communication between these different stakeholders.