From STRIDE Fellow to PRODiG+ Fellow: A Journey Back to Stony Brook

For ecologist and conservation biologist Dr. Anna Thonis, some of the most important questions in science begin with a deceptively simple one: What happens next?

As landscapes change, climates shift, cities expand, and ecosystems respond, Dr. Thonis is interested not only in documenting what is happening to wildlife populations today, but in using computational tools to understand what those changes may mean for their future.

“I love conservation research. I love wildlife research,” she said. “I love trying to understand how these populations are going to change and what that means for how we can better protect them.”

Now returning to Stony Brook University through the SUNY PRODiG+ Fellowship, Dr. Thonis is bringing together several strands of her scientific career: ecology, conservation, computation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and mentorship.

Where Conservation Meets Computation

Dr. Thonis’ research focuses on how environmental change influences wildlife, particularly where species are found and how their distributions may shift over time.

Climate change is one piece of that puzzle, but not the only one. Urbanization, agricultural development, invasive species, land-use change, and extreme weather can all reshape the environments species depend upon.

A landscape that is suitable for a species today may look very different decades from now. Rising temperatures or changing rainfall patterns may make an area less hospitable. A species might theoretically be able to move into a new region, but the vegetation, prey, or other resources it needs may no longer be there.

Those complexities are where computational science becomes especially powerful.

Predictive models allow researchers to combine many environmental variables to characterize the conditions a species needs to survive and then ask what may happen as those conditions change.

For Dr. Thonis, computation and conservation have become inseparable.

“The power of computation has advanced so much,” she said. “I’m really excited about how these technologies can be used to advance our understanding of the long-term persistence of different species and what that means for conservation management.”

Her fascination with conservation, however, began long before she was writing code or building predictive models.

A Childhood Concern Becomes a Career

Growing up in New Hampshire, Anna frequently explored a place she and her father called the “Secret Swamp,” searching for turtles, snakes, salamanders, and other wildlife.

Then development changed the area, and they could no longer visit it in the same way.

She was young, but the experience stayed with her.

Years later, during an undergraduate summer in Madagascar, that concern became much more tangible. Working near a protected reserve, Anna could see extraordinary biodiversity around her, including chameleons and lemurs. At the same time, she witnessed logging associated with expanding infrastructure in nearby communities.

The experience underscored the complicated relationship between human development and wildlife conservation.

Similar experiences in Malaysia and, later, Puerto Rico continued to shape how Anna thought about land-use change and habitat loss.

For her, conserving wildlife is about more than the ecosystem services species provide, although those benefits are substantial. Healthy ecosystems support agriculture, pollination, food systems, and countless processes people depend upon.

There is also a more fundamental conviction behind her work.

“These animals were here first,” she said. “Just because we can hurt their habitats doesn’t mean we should.”

The Power of Interdisciplinary Community

Anna was first introduced to Stony Brook’s interdisciplinary computational community as a STRIDE Fellow, an experience made possible by an NSF grant that would ultimately influence both her research and her decision to return to the University.

One of the most significant outcomes of STRIDE was an unexpected collaboration.

While studying how hurricanes might influence wildlife distributions in Puerto Rico, Anna realized that answering the question required expertise beyond ecology. Through a STRIDE data visualization course, she met fellow STRIDE participant, Alyssa Stansfield, whose research focused on Caribbean tropical cyclones and climate change.

The connection opened an entirely new scientific door.

Anna brought questions about wildlife and ecological communities. Stansfield brought expertise in atmospheric science and tropical cyclones. Together, they could begin examining questions neither could have addressed as effectively alone.

“It was one of the most interesting projects I think I’ve ever gotten to work on,” Anna said.

The experience captured what she valued most about STRIDE: meeting researchers whose disciplines, questions, and ways of thinking were entirely different from her own.

Within an individual department, she explained, it can be easy to remain inside an intellectual bubble. STRIDE provided opportunities to hear perspectives she otherwise might never have encountered, whether through collaborative projects, courses, or informal conversations at program events.

“It was somewhere between refreshing and eye-opening,” she said.

That interdisciplinary environment remained with her.

Coming Back to Stony Brook

After completing her doctorate at Stony Brook, Dr. Thonis spent approximately two and a half years as a postdoctoral researcher at New York University. During that time, she continued developing her research while building extensive partnerships across Long Island and New York City.

Her current work includes research on eastern box turtles and introduced Italian wall lizards, as well as collaborations with conservation organizations throughout Long Island. She is also a visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History.

Those relationships made the possibility of leaving New York bittersweet.

Anna knew that finding an academic position that would allow her to remain in the region, continue her collaborations, and return to a scientific community she already loved was far from guaranteed.

Then came the PRODiG+ opportunity.

“I never thought there would be an opportunity to come back here,” she said. “I wanted it to be, but I didn’t think it would.”

The position offered something unusually well aligned with the scientist she had become: a connection to both the Institute for Advanced Computational Science and the Department of Ecology and Evolution.

For Anna, the combination felt natural.

She already knew Stony Brook as a place where interdisciplinary thinking was encouraged and where researchers could find community beyond the boundaries of their own specialties.

“There’s a great community and great science,” she said. “Why would I not want to be here?”

The opportunity also allows her to continue the local conservation partnerships she has spent years building.

Even now, she admits, the return can feel surreal.

“I go home every day and I think, ‘Is this real?’”

The Mentors Who Changed the Trajectory

Anna’s path to computational ecology was not linear, and that may be one of the most important parts of her story.

She entered college intending to study electrical engineering, hoping to work on renewable energy and address environmental problems through technology.

Then she took an introductory computer science course.

She struggled.

At a university known for its technological and computational programs, she was surrounded by students for whom coding seemed instinctive. When she sought help, she did not always receive the kind of guidance she needed.

She began to believe that perhaps she simply was not capable of computational work.

Today, she codes nearly every day.

The irony is not lost on her.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’ll never be good at it,’” she said. “And now I just got this position with the Institute for Advanced Computational Science.”

What changed was not an overnight discovery of confidence. It was mentorship.

As an undergraduate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Anna found an early mentor in ecologist Dr. Brad Lister. He became instrumental in introducing her to species distribution modeling and computational ecology.

What mattered most, however, was the way he approached learning.

When neither of them knew an answer, the response was not judgment; It was curiosity.

They would figure it out together.

Later, her doctoral advisor at Stony Brook, Resit Akçakaya, reinforced that model of mentorship. He made himself accessible, encouraged questions, and treated uncertainty as part of becoming a scientist rather than evidence that a student did not belong.

Those experiences transformed the way Dr. Thonis thinks about her own role as a mentor.

“I never want students to feel like if they’re confused or stuck, they have to suffer in their heads by themselves,” she said. “I want them to come to me, and we can figure it out together.”

Creating a Place to Belong in Science

For Anna, inclusive science begins with recognizing that students do not all arrive at the same starting line.

Some may enter a laboratory with years of research experience. Others may be stepping into hiking boots for their first field season or opening a coding environment for the first time.

Neither starting point determines where they can ultimately go.

“What I care about is work ethic and excitement,” she said.

Anna has worked with more than 70 students in Puerto Rico, including students studying ecology, mathematics, geology, marine science, pre-medical fields, and the social sciences.

That diversity of experience is something she values.

Rather than creating hierarchies based on who already knows the most, she wants to build research environments where students learn from one another, ask questions freely, and see collaboration rather than competition as the engine of scientific progress.

Different perspectives, she believes, ultimately make science stronger.

“I don’t want anyone to feel like, ‘I don’t know enough, so I don’t want to say anything,’” she said. “That’s not how you progress as a scientist. You need to say what you’re thinking.”

The same principle applies to accessibility. A student who cannot participate in a certain kind of fieldwork, for example, may discover an entirely different path through computational research.

There is no single correct route into science.

One Class Does Not Define a Career

Anna often shares her own early struggles with students because she knows how easily a disappointing grade, an intimidating professor, or a difficult class can become something larger in a student's mind.

She remembers believing that doing poorly in computer science meant she could never succeed in a computational field.

She also remembers the people who refused to let that experience define her.

Their belief in her helped replace a fixed idea of what she could do with a much more powerful one: skills can be developed.

Students, she says, need space to struggle, ask questions, change direction, and grow.

“You wouldn’t get your PhD if you already knew everything,” she said. “You’re there to ask questions and learn and be challenged.”

Her own journey is evidence of that philosophy.

A student who once believed she was not good at coding became a computational ecologist. A childhood fascination with reptiles and amphibians became a career studying how wildlife responds to global environmental change. A fellowship that introduced her to researchers across disciplines eventually helped shape the kind of scientific community she wanted to call home.

Now, through PRODiG+, Anna has returned to Stony Brook with an opportunity to help build that community for the next generation.

And perhaps that is one of the clearest lessons of her journey: where a scientist begins does not determine where they will end up.

What matters is having the curiosity to keep asking questions, the determination to keep learning, and, sometimes, someone willing to say, “We’ll figure it out together.”

--Jennifer McCauley