LAB MEMBERS
Eric T. Hileman (He/Him), Principle Investigator
email: eric.hileman(at)mail.wvu.edu
I am an assistant professor in the Wildlife and Fisheries Resources program at West Virginia University and the research advisor and lead for the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake SAFE program. Before my current appointment, I was an assistant research professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University. Prior to this, I was a Mendenhall research fellow at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center working in the Brown Treesnake Laboratory in Guam, an adjunct graduate faculty at Grand Valley State University, and a postdoctoral fellow at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
Kaden Hughes, M.S. Student
Coming soon!
Como
Dare Scott (They/Them), M.S. Student
Dare received their BS in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. During their undergraduate program, Dare contributed to diamondback terrapin research in the Maerz Lab, focusing on describing local reproductive parameters of diamondback terrapins on the Georgia coast. Dare has since worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as a biological intern and lead a salamander field crew for the U.S. Geological Survey SE Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. They are primarily interested in applied conservation research for declining species. Dare’s MS research at WVU will examine eastern massasauga overwintering habitat and phenology to support Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation planning.
Matthew Klein (He/Him), M.S. Student
Matthew received his BS in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As an undergraduate student, Matthew supported work on the spatial and behavioral ecology of prairie rattlesnakes in western Nebraska. After graduating, he worked as a conservation biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, mostly working with waterfowl and massasauga rattlesnakes. Matthew is broadly interested in ecological responses to change in herpetofauna, especially with at-risk species. As a MS student at WVU, Matthew will investigate the effects of climate change, inbreeding depression, and snake fungal disease on eastern massasauga rattlesnake population dynamics and population viability.
Kurtis Boccabello, B.S. Student
Kurtis is a senior in the BS Wildlife and Fisheries Resources program at West Virginia University. In his undergraduate program, Kurtis assists with genetic identification of invasive carp in Dr. Amy Welsh’s lab and is the president of the West Virginia Herpetology club. He has worked as a bat survey technician at Alliance Consulting with federally listed bat species in West Virginia and Illinois. Kurtis wants to gear his future graduate work toward aiding sensitive herpetofauna species imperiled by human activity. He is currently assisting Dare Scott, M.S. student at WVU, with their research on eastern massasauga overwintering habitats.
James N. Helferich, M.S.
Thesis: Of changing climate and habitat: range-wide individual growth and local patterns of phenology and landscape use in a threatened pit-viper. James is currently a PhD student in Dr. Lisanne Petracca's lab at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
Past Lab Members
