With degrees in Ecology and Mathematics, Betsy Cochran enhances the multidisciplinarian view of the College. She builds mathematical models of natural plant and animal populations in order to understand their long-term demographic dynamics. With such modeling, she hopes to predict the impact of various human activities on native orchids and other species, as well as understand plant/pollinator interactions.

She is the author of Stagecoach, version 2.1, a software package for demographers that computes both basic and advanced parameters for stage-classified matrix population models, including population growth rates, stable age and stage distributions, generation time, and net reproductive rate. 

Dr. Cochran has conducted research at the University of California at Davis, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Georgia, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She has taught at the University of California, acted as Project Manager of the National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research group at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and served as a reviewer of the Ecological Society of America, Theoretical Population Biology, and the National Science Foundation.

 

• Ph.D.,  Ecology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• M.S., Mathematics, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• B.A., College Scholars, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville