Group members

PI: Uri Roll

I'm a senior lecturer at the Mitrani Department for Desert Ecology, in Sde-Boker. I am deeply passionate about nature and I feel that we have a moral obligation to conserve it - to minimize our footprint and correct mistakes we've made in the past. I feel that science has a lot to contribute towards this end, but that we also have to leave our ivory towers and strive that our knowledge and insights will make a difference in the real world.

You can find my publications here.
Feel free to contact me at: uriroll@bgu.ac.il

Post-Docs

Victor China

I started my research career chasing rodents in the Negev desert at Prof. Zvika Abramsky's lab. After getting familiar with the desert I choose to move to the Red Sea where I studied the interaction between the cleaner fish and its reef fish clients under the supervision of Dr. Moshe Kiflawi and Prof. Burt Kotler. After I finished my M.Sc. I remained in Eilat and turned to teaching for a few years during which I met my wife. Finally, I started a Ph.D. in the field of bio-physics under the supervision of Prof. Roi Holzman, where I studied larval feeding behavior and how the physical environment affects them.
I am now a post-doc fellow working in collaboration with Prof. Yoni Belmaker. In my study, I wish to implement machine learning to the ecological study of reef fish species.

email: victor.china@gmail.com

Gopal Murali

I am an engineer turned evolutionary ecologist fascinated by reptiles and have a broad interest in many areas of ecology and evolutionary biology. For my PhD dissertation, I investigated how animals use colour patterns against predation, especially when in motion using a range of tools, including approaches from experimental psychology, digital image processing, and comparative phylogenetic methods. Additionally, I have independently conducted field experiments to understand the determinants of contest outcome and multimodal signaling in dancing frogs from the southern Western Ghats. During my graduate studies, I have also developed a keen interest in macroecology, in specific, mechanisms governing species diversity. Currently, in collaboration with Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel-Aviv University), I aim to understand drivers of species diversification rates and endemism in Squamates.

Email: goopaalmurali@gmail.com, twitter, Google scholar

Enav Vidan

I am an ecologist and conservation biologist, deeply passionate about our natural world and its protection. I conducted an M.Sc. in Ecology under Prof. Tamar Dayan and Prof. Noga Kronfeld, on the temporal separation dynamics of spiny mice in Ein-Gedi. My Ph.D. focused on global lizard macroecology and was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Shai Meiri, and Prof. Yoni Belmaker. Beyond that I worked for many years as an independent consultant for many conservation and ecology projects, as well as for different organizations such as the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (as the Southern Israel district ecologist, amongst other roles), the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and others.
My project focuses on prioritizing for conservation the Israeli land-vertebrate fauna, in light of current and future development schemes, and climates.

Email: enavidan@gmail.com

Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano

I am working with Uri Roll and Prof. Shai Meiri on identifying predictors and estimating conservation status for data deficient tetrapods.
I have worked with the effect of climate deviations on the population dynamics of Brazilian lizards with Professor Guarino Colli and on the development of methodologies to estimate ecophysiological predictors of lizard's distribution with Professor Barry Sinervo.
My main interests are biogeography, ecophysiology, biostatistics, and bioinformatics.

Ph.D. students

Tal Raz

I have always had a connection and compassion towards nature and animals, and a great will to contribute to their conservation.
I conducted an M.Sc. in Ecology under the supervision of Dr. Takuya Iwamura and Prof. Keith Hobson, on Afro-Palearctic migratory passerines and identifying their non-breeding grounds in Africa.

During my PhD I will focus on global conservation of reptiles, co-supervised by Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel Aviv University).

M.Sc. students

Gali Ofer

During the past decade I gained expertise in GIS and image analysis and conducted several projects in these fields. I had my heart set on conducting a B.Sc. in biology and was certain that I'll be back to work right after that. However, along my studies I discovered the fields of Biogeograpy and Macroecology which best combined my two passions of biology and spatial analysis. Currently I'm starting my M.Sc. looking at spatial patterns in the global distributions of land vertebrates, and I'm pretty sure I found my calling. 
My main supervisor is Prof. Shai Meiri and I am based (most of the time) at the School of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University.

email: galiofer@mail.tau.ac.il

Anna Zimin

A bird watcher, ringer (bander) & surveyor.
Although my experience is mostly ornithological, I am very much interested in exploring all vertebrates, as well as other taxa.
Before starting my M.Sc. in ecology, I've participated in several ornithological field research projects, starting near home and gradually expanding my ventures into the more remote corners of the Palearctic. With growing experience in fieldwork and the duration of each stay (reaching the span of entire migratory seasons), a new perspective on the temporal and spatial ecological dynamics started to reveal itself to me, inspiring to seek a deeper understanding through the tools of meticulous scientific research. Gaining these tools and using them for a better understanding of our ever-changing natural world is thus the main motivation behind my academic endeavors.
My current work focuses on the factors that shape extinction risk in reptiles, under the supervision of Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel-Aviv University) and Dr. Uri Roll (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev).

email: annazimin[at]mail.tau.ac.il

Goni Barki

I have always been fascinated by nature, whether as a city kid binging on National Geographic or as I grew older outdoors, mostly hiking the dessert. At a certain point, I realized that I want my life to revolve around this passion and started a B.Sc. in biology at the Ben Gurion University, during which I was drawn to ecology, especially to the field of spatial ecology. Out of growing care and awareness of the state of the natural world, I decided my next step will be studying and working in the field of conservation biology. I am now starting my M.Sc in the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology in Sde-Boker, under the supervision of Dr. Uri Roll  and Prof. Shai Meiri.

email: gonib@post.bgu.ac.il

Eli Finarov

An outdoor person with deep passion for nature protection. I've spent almost half of the past decade in East Asia, and worked as a tour and trekking guide in China and Taiwan.
I am now starting my M.Sc in Ecology under the supervision of Dr. Uri Roll (Ben-Gurion University), Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel Aviv University), and Prof. Assaf Shwartz (Technion), focusing on response strategies for the Common Myna.

Email: elifi84@gmail.com

Timart Laniado

Biologist and chemical engineer, passionate about nature conservation and statistics.

I have worked as an air quality engineer in the Haifa bay Municipality.
Love bird watching and traveling around the world to remote locations.
In October 2020 I started my M.Sc. on global conservation of reptiles under the supervision of Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel-Aviv University) Dr. Uri Roll (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

Anna Cihlová

I am a Master’s student from Prague, where I finished my Bachelor's Degree in Applied Ecology while simultaneously working for Startup Studio as a Frontend Developer (coder). Computer Science, like Applied Environmental Science, are both fields that take an initial concept or idea and turn it into something practical and creative with a real impact. I have a love for both of these fields and combined with my passion for nature, I would like to work with online data on natural habitats to investigate them and communicate the role that they play in our lives and ultimately help to conserve them. This is the mission of the newly forming scientific field of "iEcology". In my role at Uri Roll's lab, I intend to be at the very cutting edge of this emerging field.

Lior Shak

My primary research interests surround factors that shape the risk of reptilian extinction. I am focusing on snakes’ intrinsic life-history traits that might put species in greater threat. I am also interested in expanding the criteria that determine species' IUCN Red List threat status. I plan to check whether certain biological attributes may cause threat status shifts, and the implication these have for conservation management. 
In October 2019 I began my MSc under the supervision of Prof. Shai Meiri (Tel Aviv University) and Dr. Uri Roll (Ben-Gurion University), focusing on detecting important predictors of species’ extinction risk.
Prior to my master's degree, my interest in conservation biology led me to earn a Postgraduate Diploma of conservation biology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
I also hold a bachelor's degree from the Department of Animal Sciences at the Hebrew University.
liorshak@mail.tau.ac.il

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Past members

Ana de Osma Vargas-Machuca

I am a Nature lover!
I wanted to be a biologist ever since I was a child and became fascinated with raptors in general and vultures in particular.
I have worked and volunteered in many conservation projects around the world. One of these was monitoring the migration of birds through the Strait of Gibraltar. The migration phenomenon captivated me. Consequently I visited Batumi (Georgia) to marvel at migration there. I also traveled to Pennsylvania (USA) where, at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, I trained in Raptor Conservation Science. Following this, I realized how important it is for me to be part of the raptor conservation science family.
Raptor migration also brought me to Israel, to partake in the spring migration counts in Eilat. I fell in love with this country and decided to stay here further.
Ana worked on "The role of vultures as keystone and flagships in human landscapes".

Favorite quote: "The time to protect a species is while it is still common". Rosalie Edge