Moore Laboratory of Zoology
The Moore Lab unites vintage museum collections with cutting-edge DNA technology. Our mission is to understand how evolution has shaped biodiversity and how organisms cope with environmental change today.Undergraduate Research
The Moore Lab is training the next generation of biodiversity researchers to engage with modern challenges in both the public and private sector.
Highest bird to student ratio
We are a museum of 65,000 vintage bird and mammal specimens at a small liberal arts college in Los Angeles. With our team of students, we conduct cutting-edge research—combining vintage specimens with modern DNA technology—to understand how Earth’s biodiversity got here and where it is headed in the future.
62,776
bird specimens
2,022
bird species
88%
of all hummingbird species represented
2,174
mammal specimens
6,075
specimens from Ecuador
1951
year established
9th
largest university or college collection in the U.S.
Virtual Tour
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the world’s largest Mexican bird collection.
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Our Team
Dr. McCormack uses museum specimens and genomes to study the evolutionary history of birds, focusing especially on how both ancient landscape changes and more recent human-caused environmental changes affect birds’ distributions, appearance, and DNA. As Director of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology and Curator of its bird and mammal collection, he is a champion of museum collections and their potential for understanding and reversing the biodiversity crisis.
John McCormack
Director and Curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology; Associate Professor, Biology

Whitney has experience with genomics and museum collections. She is currently a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program at UCLA where she is studying the genetics of color evolution using large-scale biodiversity data. From...
Whitney Tsai Nakashima
Research Associate, Moore Lab of Zoology and Genomics Center

Jenny heads the Moore Lab's outreach activities, planning tours and special events with local schools, collaborators, and the community. She has a background working with environmental NGOs and museums in exhibition programming, event planning,...
Jenny Wong
Project, Outreach and Business Coordinator, Moore Lab of Zoology

Sean studies the historical ecology of birds in Los Angeles County across a temporal gradient using museum specimens, citizen-science data, and field surveys. Concurrent with his work at the Moore Lab, Sean also manages the Cal State Los Angeles...
Sean Lyon
Curatorial Assistant, Moore Lab of Zoology

Brenda has experience working with large citizen science datasets and incorporating them into spatial models to understand species distributions over thousands of years. Having recently graduated with her master’s...
Brenda Ramirez
Research Technician II, FLAPP

Marky has been a part of several research projects, of which most have revolved around her love of museum collections. She is also an avid birder and artist, devoting much of her time to observing and taking notes on the birds she sees. Having...
Marky Mutchler
Research Technician, Moore Lab of Zoology

Russell has explored his love of animals through a wide variety of lab and field experiences. During his free time he prefers to be outside searching for wildlife with friends and practicing his photography. After graduating from Oregon...
Russell Campbell
Research Technician, oBird

Alana studies the hybridization of two species of Calocitta Magpie-Jays. She has been conducting this research and assisting with collections management since she was a Biology undergraduate at Occidental....
Alana Pizarro
Research Assistant, Moore Lab of Zoology

Eliza has been assisting with research in the Genomics Center since she was an undergraduate at Occidental. Since graduating in 2022, she will continue working on various genomics research, such as the Mexican Bird Resurvey Project, managing the...
Eliza Kirsch
Research Assistant, Moore Lab of Zoology and Genomics Center
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