top of page
Illustration by Andrés Montes
Valentina Gómez-Bahamón
Email: valentinagb[@]vt.edu
I am an incoming Assistant Professor at the Biological Sciences Department at Virginia Tech (Fall 2024). Currently, I am an Eberly Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University sponsored by the Toews Lab. I am also a research affiliate at The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and a Researcher for SELVA: Research for conservation in the Neotropics, Colombia.
Curriculum Vitae
I study how the evolution of behavioral strategies can drive population divergence and promote a cascade of correlated evolutionary processes that can enhance speciation. My research has focused primarily on switches among migratory and non-migratory behavior in birds. I am interested in understanding the drivers of these switches and the consequences to phenotypic evolution, speciation and the propensity of extinction under past and current environmental conditions.
Researchers
Cándida Caicedo
Interested in studying the interaction between birds and plants, especially feeding interactions, but also other aspects of the biology of these two groups. Currently, she is working on a project to understand the importance of different characteristics of vegetation in natural savannas for bird behavior.
Co-advised with Sergio Estrada-Villegas
Maira Holguín-Ruiz
Passionate about ornithology, she specializes in bird observation. During her undergraduate studies, she focused on the physiological and behavioral aspects of migration at stopover sites in northern Colombia. For the past four years, she has been part of the SELVA team, tracking migratory birds through observations, banding, and telemetry in the Llanos foothills and the Caribbean coast. Currently, she is working on a project with Cándida to understand why birds select specific sites within natural savannas.
Co-advised with Sergio Estrada-Villegas
Undergraduate researchers
Gabriel Guillermo Bermudez
Undergraduate thesis: Morfología y rendimiento aerodinámico de las alas de Zonotrichia capensis en respuesta a la altitud: un estudio de dinámica computacional de fluidos
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Co-Advised with Elkin Tenorio MSc. and Dr. Oscar Laverde
Former undergraduate researchers
David Ricardo Caro
Undergraduate thesis: Kinematics of an aerial display in the Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana savana) during breeding season
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Co-Advised with Dr. Oscar Laverde
Bryan Mateus
Undergraduate thesis: Divergence of beak morphology, foraging behavior and diet among migratory and year-round resident Fork-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus savana)
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Co-Advised with Dr. Carlos Daniel Cadena
bottom of page