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Matt Orr in front of shrubbery

Matthew R. Orr

Associate Professor
Department of Integrative Biology
Biology at OSU-Cascades

Matthew R. Orr

Associate Professor
Department of Integrative Biology
Biology at OSU-Cascades

Background

Biography

I came to OSU-Cascades after studying grasshopper speciation in the Sierra Nevada and the influence of parasitic flies on ant behavior and community ecology in Costa Rica and Brazil. I became interested in restoration ecology while working in the sand dunes of San Francisco during my ant post doc at UC Berkeley.

Education

  • PhD, Population Biology, University of California - Davis, 1994.
  • B.A., Biology, Amherst College, 1987.

Research

I conduct research in topics spanning behavioral ecology of scavengers; restoration ecology of forest, field, and streams; and the application of restoration ecology to medicine. Being a scientific generalist has helped me to explore fields from a trans-disciplinary perspective and offer my undergraduate students a wide array of research experiences that match their interests.

Teaching

In my classes I try to give students hands-on experience, whether it is identifying aquatic insects, doing fieldwork in restoration, or working with data sets in ecology.

Courses Taught at OSU-Cascades

  • BI 370 – Ecology
  • BI 371 – Ecological Methods
  • BI 375 – Field Studies in Ecological Restoration
  • Z 477 – Aquatic Entomology

Awards

  • OSU-Cascades Teaching Award. 2017.
  • OSU-Cascades Outreach Award for work with local resource agencies and landowners. 2012.