Currently Jillian Sterman is in her 1st year of her Master's degree at MSU in the department of Fisheries and Wildlife; her thesis focuses on the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, their road ecology and population dynamics in Michigan. She tracks individual rattlesnake's movement, estimates their space use and home range to determine if they occupy highway right-of-ways, and monitors their responses to road maintenance activities in highway rights-of-way.  Additionally we're collecting vegetation information to determine probability of massasauga occupancy in an area based on the  vegetation cover. She's working towards a career in natural resource management and conservation of federally listed species, which will  allow her to work with an amazing variety of wildlife and she'll undoubtedly be learning something new every day.
To keep up to date with WaMPS updates, you can follow @msuwamps on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or visit our website https://www.wamps.org. If you would like to learn more about graduate school in physics and astronomy at MSU, check out https://pa.msu.edu
If you would like to leave comments, questions,   or recommend someone to be interviewed on Journeys of Scientists,   you can email WaMPS outreach coordinator Bryan at stanl142@msu.edu
Thank you to Michael Palomares for providing new theme music for the podcast! Your support is much appreciated.