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Joanna Burger

Joanna Burger (born January 18, 1941) is an ornithologist and behavioral ecologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her fascination with birds started early on since she lived on a farm as a child. Although growing up she faced many obstacles, she persevered and eventually received her Ph.D from the University of Minnesota.
After starting her Postdoc at Rutgers University Joanna has focused her research on "understanding the human dimensions of environmental assessment, particularly with respect to Department of Energy nuclear legacy sites."
Joanna has also published many books one of which include The Parrot Who Owns Me. Throughout her years she has held a number of jobs including working as an instructor at SUNY College at Buffalo and as a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota. She is currently married to Michael Gochfeld, a physician and an ornithologist.

Early Life

Joanna Burger was born in Schenectady, New York on January 18, 1941. She grew up on a vegetable farm, and her first job was scaring the crows and blackbirds when she was eight years old. Since she was a "farm girl", her options were limited to being a secretary at best. However, she did not let that stop her from pursuing her passion for birds and science. She took a biology class her senior year, which no one thought she would be able to pass. One day, the biology teacher told Joanna that she had laryngitis, so she asked Joanna to teach the class. The principal was supposedly auditing the teacher, so he could have left when Joanna started teaching, but he did not because it was all a set-up. This led him to realize how much he underestimated her, and it proved the biology teacher's faith in Joanna's capabilities. Her main interests were in marine and coastal birds.

Education

After high school, Joanna Burger graduated from the State University of New York at Albany, New York in 1963. Then, she graduated from Cornell University a year after for her Master's degree. Of course, she didn't stop there. Her passion for birds and science led her to continue getting her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota on 1972. She then started her Postdoctorate degree at Rutgers University at the Institute of Animal Behavior from 1972-1973. In 2006, she achieved her Honors Ph.D at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. From the beginning of college, Joanna Burger originally majored in biology because of her interest in animal behavior. She originally strived only to be a teacher until she found the right place: research. During her graduate school life, she joined the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to continue her post-doctorate research. At Rutgers, she is currently a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She received countless awards, like the Rutgers Presidential Award for Outstanding Public Service and the Women in Science Award in New Jersey.

Personal Life

For over 30 years, Joanna Burger has been with her husband Michael Gochfeld. He is a physician and ornithologist similar to her. They explore the world together and share intellectual conversations on their interests. Joanna Burger sees her husband as her soulmate. Joanna is very attached to her Amazon parrot named Tiko. Joanna and Tiko spend a lot of time together. Typically, Tiko defends Joanna when people get to close to her. This does not exclude her husband. Tiko gets prepared to fight in the middle of the two.

Career

When she joined Rutgers, she traveled to numerous places like Namibia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, and even Antartica to study numerous animals like Zebras, gulls, Emperor Penguins, and Wildebeests.In the U.S, her research is mainly focused on the behavior differences between the species of birds in the country, observing their colonies and risks in their environments. She had also been using bird feathers to help determine if there is a "pollution of seabirds" to observe the consequences of lead, chromium and manganese in their environments, especially with gull chicks. In order to observe these birds, Joanna also devotes her time into studying the amount of birds consumed in different areas like New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, South Carolina, Idaho, Puerto Rico, and islands on Alaska. have conducted laboratory experiments examining the effects of lead, chromium and manganese on behavioral development of gull chicks, using behaviors that directly involve survival. Additional research involves examining the contaminants in fish, fish and shellfish consumption rates in people, risk from such consumption, and risk communication and management. The fish consumption studies have been conducted in New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, South Carolina, Idaho, Puerto Rico, and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

Books

Joanna Burger also published educational books in her career, including books like Behavior of Marine Animals: Perspectives in research. Vol.4: Marine Birds, The Common Tern: Its Breeding Biology and Behavior, Threats to Seabirds on Islands, International Council for Bird Preservation, and Butterflies of New Jersey. One of the most famous books is the book entitled The Parrot Who Owns Me, which is a novel the Joanna wrote to not focus on "animals having "human" qualities or humans having "animal" qualities: rather, we all share certain qualities of being, including emotion, intellect, habits, desires, hopes and fears." Through Joanna's determination, there is now more information for scientists to take advantage of to help rid of the unhealthy relationships between chemicals and animal species.