People
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Professor T. Michael Anderson
Principle Investigator
Michael is the PI of the Savanna Dynamics Project, which has been operating in Serengeti for >20 years. He has broad interests in savanna ecology including herbivore migration, plant-animal interactions, trees, fire, soil ecology, and the Indian Ocean Dipole. He loves to flyfish and does not go by “Todd”.
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Dr. Arjun B. Potter
Postdoc
Arjun is thrilled to be a part of the Acacia project, where he is studying how Acacias thrive in African savannas. He has been conducting common garden experiments in Arusha, Tanzania to see how Acacia trees respond to drought, fire, herbivory, and competition with grasses. Arjun received his PhD in 2022 from Princeton University and his undergrad in 2012 from Cornell University. His other research interests include the ecology of animal diets and biodiversity conservation.
Read more at his website: arjunpotter.com
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Ellen Weinheimer
PhD
Ellen is investigating the evolution of African acacias from a genomic perspective. Her research integrates genomic and transcriptomic data
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Annerine Myburgh
PhD Candidate
Annerine is a passionate ecologist studying the drivers of biodiversity and population genetic diversity of Vachellia tortilis in African savanna and grassland ecosystems. Annerine completed a BSc (honors) in Ecology in 2019 and MSc in Plant Science at the University of Pretoria in 2022 and is currently a PhD candidate at Wake Forest University.
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Brian Kaelo
MSc Candidate
Brian received his BSC in Environmental Science from Catawba College in 2025. Brian is interested in human-wildlife conflict and how grazing management strategies affect wildlife distribution and abundance in the Masai Mara ecosystem in his home country of Kenya.
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Jacob Kamana Niganya
Field Technician
Jacob received his Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Management from the College of African Wildlife Management (MWEKA) in 2020. He was a lead field technician on the Nelson-Mandela Acacia Project from 2023 - 2025 and now works on the Snapshot Serengeti camera trapping project in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.
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Mary Hauser
Undergrad
Mary is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. Using scholarship funding, she has been to Serengeti twice. She is currently studying elemental composition of the Thomson’s Gazelle diet.
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Alexis Robertson
Undergrad
Alexis is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Biology. She is studying the varying composition of mosquitoes at Pilot Mountain State Park. After graduation she plans to go to dental school.
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Nathan Smitherman
Undergrad
Past Members: Postdocs
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Dr. Jason Donaldson
Originally from South Africa, Jason brings with him a veritable boatload of expertise in savanna ecology. Jason trained with some of the top savanna ecologists in the world, including Sally Archibald, William Bond, David Richardson and Gareth Hempson. So, despite being a bit intimidated, we are really excited to have him as a collaborator on the project. In addition to having started a well-known savanna conservation blog and being a stellar photographer, Jason is also fanatical about a good braai (AKA South African barbecue) so expect to eat well when you are in the field with him!
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Dr. Thomas Morrison
We were very lucky to have Tom join the project as of November 2012. Tom brings a range of expertise to the group, including large herbivore ecology and modeling herbivore movement. Tom did his PhD at Dartmouth with Doug Bolger and recently completed a post-doc with Matt Kauffman at the University of Wyoming. Tom will be spending much of his time in Serengeti (lucky dog) conducting research to try and understand why savannas are such dynamic, heterogeneous systems. Find out more about Tom and his research with his CV here.
Past Members: Grad Students
Past Members: Undergrads