Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell, PhD, MSc, BSc Hons

Area of Study / Keywords

Bioacoustics behavior biodiversity rodents bats

About

She received B.Sc.Hons (1993) and M.Sc (1996) degrees in Biology from the University of Regina, and a Ph.D. in Zoology from Western University (2001). She held an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology/Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. She was Dean of Science at the University of Alberta from 2019-2021 and was seconded in 2021 to the Interim Dean role in the new College of Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Alberta. She was appointed as College Dean and Vice Provost of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences. Prior to coming to the University of Alberta in 2019 she was the Head of the Biology Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She joined the Biology Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2003 where she spent 16 years and held positions as Director of Graduate Studies in Biology and Head of the Biology Department. 

Research

Matina Kalcounis-Rueppell is an internationally recognized scientist whose research centers on the biology of acoustic communication in wild bats and mice, two biodiverse groups of mammals that communicate using ultrasound. Using innovative and integrative approaches in the field, she characterizes their communication behaviors and determines how ecological, physiological, and anthropogenic effects mediate those behaviors under natural contexts. She has led two scientific societies, the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, and the North American Society for Bat research. She has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as other government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry. Through her outreach program “Bats and Mice in Your Backyard”, she communicates her science, which has also been featured in the popular press, radio and television, and children’s literature, to the public.