Leadership, Principal Investigators & Field Staff
The Alliance for Adaptive Ecology is guided by an interdisciplinary team of field biologists, ethologists, spatial ecologists, and community anthropologists committed to rigorous, non-invasive conservation science.
Dr. Ananya Sen
Lead Scientist — Cognitive Ethology & Herpetological Ecology
“Effective conservation begins when we respect non-human animals as perceptive agents capable of learning and memory. By decoding their sensory worlds and cognitive choices, we can build interventions that guide wildlife away from harm rather than relying on punitive barriers.”
With over fifteen years of field experience across tropical agricultural mosaics, Dr. Sen specializes in herpetofaunal cognition, amphibian road avoidance behavior, and multi-trophic pest regulation services in smallholder farming systems.
Core Domains:
Dr. Marcus Thorne
Principal Landscape Ecologist & Spatial Modeling Lead
“Conservation cannot succeed inside isolated ecological islands. Our science must illuminate the connective tissue of shared working landscapes, demonstrating how spatial heterogeneity and rotational land use sustain viable populations outside formal reserves.”
Dr. Thorne leads the institute's remote sensing and camera-trap monitoring grid initiatives. His research maps animal movement corridors, temporal circadian partitioning, and habitat permeability across fragmented montane ecosystems.
Core Domains:
Dr. Elena Rostova
Distinguished Research Fellow — Forest Dynamics & Phenology
“Decadal observation reveals ecological rhythms that snapshot studies inevitably miss. Mentoring the next generation of field naturalists requires instilling patience, methodical field recording, and reverence for structural forest complexity.”
Bringing more than three decades of fieldwork in tropical forest canopy dynamics, seed dispersal networks, and climate phenology, Dr. Rostova oversees the institute's permanent vegetation plots and field researcher apprenticeship programs.
Core Domains:
Dr. Tariq Mansoor
Senior Research Scholar — Socio-Ecological Systems & Agrarian Transition
“Environmental sustainability and rural dignity are inseparable. Conservation policies that disregard customary land rights, household debt, or market transitions inevitably fail both the forest and the community.”
Dr. Mansoor's scholarship examines agrarian transitions, community forest tenure, and indigenous resource governance. He has worked extensively with shifting cultivation communities, pastoral collectives, and forest-gathering households across complex transitional ecotones.
Core Domains:
Dr. Rachel K. Vance
Director of Policy Engagement & Environmental Justice
“Rigorous scientific research is incomplete until it empowers community advocates and informs regulatory law. True conservation justice translates empirical evidence into defensible policies that protect the vulnerable.”
With 25 years of experience bridging grassroots environmental advocacy with legislative policy, Dr. Vance focuses on environmental impact litigation, climate resilience frameworks, and safeguarding traditional community land rights against extractive encroachment.
Core Domains:
Dr. Sarah Al-Sayed
Director of Species Recovery & Landscape Partnerships
“Recovering endangered species requires harmonizing field biology with the economic realities of forest-dependent women and smallholders. When local families gain tangible benefits from conservation, ecological restoration becomes self-sustaining.”
Dr. Al-Sayed has directed species recovery programs across wetlands, mangrove deltas, and mountain escarpments. She serves on regional species survival commissions and spearheads community-managed clean-energy water infrastructure projects in forest-fringe settlements.
Core Domains:
Work with Our Research Team
We welcome applications for postdoctoral fellowships, graduate student field apprenticeships, and visiting scientist sabbaticals. View our opportunities page or contact our team.