Smithsonian Global

Christie Sampson

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Photo credit Christie Sampson.

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Former Smithsonian Fellow Christie Sampson is an ecologist with more than 10 years of fieldwork, both within the U.S. and internationally. With an expertise in studying animal and plant systems in temperate and tropical ecosystems, she has addressed population and community ecology questions for both governmental and nonprofit organizations.

Christie is a graduate of Michigan State University, recieveing two BS degrees, one in Biosystems Engineering and one in Zoology, in 2010. She recieved her MS from Clemson University in Biological Sciences in 2013. Both her MS and PhD studies have focused on Asian elephant ecology and conservation, working with Dr. Peter Leimgruber and Dr. Melissa Songer at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). For her master’s degree, Christie assessed the effects of disturbances such as fire, invasive species, and illegal grazing on elephant habitat in Sri Lanka. She received an Emerging Professional Fellowship from the Eurasia Foundation in 2015 to expand her work on human-wildlife conflict to areas in the western United States and Russia.

Christie is a PhD candidate at Clemson University in Dr. David Tonkyn’s lab. During her fellowship with the GIS lab at SCBI her research involved understanding and mitigating human-elephant conflict in Myanmar through community education and outreach; analyzing elephant movement ecology; and evaluating new mitigation and management techniques.

Programs

Using Satellite Technology to Track and Conserve Asian Elephants in Myanmar   Active

Smithsonian scientists are using satellite technology to better understand how we can conserve the critically endangered Asian elephant.