Dongmin (Dennis) Kim
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Minnesota | Harvard University
dongmin_kim [AT] g.harvard.edu
Bio
I am a quantitative ecologist with a background in statistics and a founder/data curator of Move Disease Archive. My research interests are pretty broad, but generally involve the application of statistical and mathematical models to problems in movement ecology.
I received my PhD at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in 2024, co-advised by Allison Shaw and John Fieberg. Beginning in fall 2024, I am a postdoctoral associate co-advised by Jesús Pinto-Ledezma at UMN and Paul Moorcroft at Harvard University.
Throughout my career, I have worked with a dynamic group of researchers around the world, such as the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Collaboration is one of my favorite parts about being a researcher, so if you're interested in working together, please get in touch!
Interests
- Animal movement models
- Habitat selection models
- Hidden Markov models and their applications in disease/movement ecology
- Migration ecology
- Biodiversity models
Updates
- [Dec. 2025] website for the Move Disease Archive is launched! I am a PI for this initiative and am very excited about this project :)
- [Dec. 2025] new preprint about understanding eco-evolutionary drivers of partial migration is out.
- [Sep. 2025] new preprint about detecting disease progression in wildlife using HMMs is out.
- [Sep. 2025] the Japanese Serow paper was accepted by European Journal of Wildlife Research.
- [July. 2025] the biases in movement ecology paper is out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
- [May. 2025] the biases in movement ecology paper was accepted by Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
- [Feb. 2025] the Many-Analysts paper is out in BMC Biology.
- [Dec. 2024] the Many-Analysts paper was accepted by BMC Biology.
- [Nov. 2024] the memory paper is out in Movement Ecology.
- [Oct. 2024] the North American bird migration paper is out in Avian Conservation and Ecology.
- [Oct. 2024] the paper about how to incorporate familiarity covariates into step selection analysis was accepted by Movement Ecology.
- [Sep. 2024] the North American bird migration paper was accepted by Avian Conservation and Ecology.
- [Aug. 2024] successfully defended my doctoral dissertation: Exploring the Hidden Drivers of Animal Movement: Traits, Disease, and Memory!
- [Aug. 2024] new preprint about identifying biases within scientific communities in movement ecology is out.
- [July. 2024] new Shaw lab paper about theory personas (a guide on how to frame theoretical research questions) was accepted in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
- [April. 2024] starting a dryland project with the Max-Planck Institute of Animal Behavior to understand the effects of dryland on vultures' space use!
- [April. 2024] new Fieberg lab paper on modeling individual variability using step selection analysis is out in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
- [Oct. 2023] new preprint about how results vary when many different researchers analyze the same data is out.
- [Aug. 2023] new preprint about how to incorporate familiarity covariates into step selection analysis is out.
- [April. 2023] was awarded the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for 2023-2024!
- [July. 2022] received the National Science Foundation (NSF) - INTERN Award to work with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Conservation Ecology Center (CEC) for 2022-2023!
- [May. 2022] received the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship (SIFP) to work with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center for summer 2022!
Publications
Most recent publications on Google Scholar.
‡ indicates equal contribution.
Modelling individual variability in habitat selection and movement using integrated step‐selection analysis PDF
Nilanjan Chatterjee, David Wolfson, Dongmin Kim, Juliana Velez, Smith Freeman, Nathan M Bacheler, Kyle Shertzer, J Christopher Taylor, John Fieberg
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Identifying signals of memory from observations of animal movements PDF
Dongmin Kim, Peter Thompson, David Wolfson, Jerod Merkle, Luiz Gustavo Rodrigues Oliveira-Santos, James Forester, Tal Avgar, Mark Lewis, John Fieberg
Movement Ecology
Six personas to adopt when framing theoretical research questions in biology PDF
Allison Shaw, Ave T Bisesi, Chris Wojan, Dongmin Kim, Martha Torstenson, Naven Narayanan, Peter Lutz, Ruby Ales, Cynthia Shao
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology PDF
Gould E, Fraser HS, Parker TH, Shinichi N, Griffith SC, Vesk PA, Fidler F,... Dongmin Kim, ..., Zimmerman GM, Zitomer RA
BMC Biology
Migration and tolerance shape host behaviour and response to parasite infection PDF
Dongmin Kim, Allison K Shaw
Journal of Animal Ecology
Conservation of North American migratory birds: insights from developments in tracking technologies PDF
Martha Torstenson, David Wolfson, Samuel Safran, Desiree Walton, Andrew Hallberg, Dongmin Kim, Yi Fan Tan, Gunnar Kramer, David Andersen
Avian Conservation and Ecology
Perceived and observed biases within scientific communities: a case study in movement ecology PDF
Shaw AK, Fouda L, Mezzini S, Dongmin Kim, Chatterjee N, Wolfson D,Abrahms B, Attias N, Beardsworth CE, Beltran R, Binning SA, Blincow KM, Chan Y-C, Fronhofer EA, Hegemann A, Hurme ER, Iannarilli F, Kellner JB, McCoy KD, Rafiq K, Saastamoinen M, Sequeira AMM, Serota MW, Sumasgutner P, Tao Y, Torstenson M, Yanco SW, Beck KB, Bertram MG, Beumer LT, Bradarić M, Clermont J, Ellis-Soto D, Faltusová M, Fieberg J, Hall RJ, Kölzsch A, Lai S, Lee-Cruz L, Loretto M-C, Loveridge A, Michelangeli M, Mueller T, Riotte-Lambert L, Sapir N, Scacco M, Teitelbaum CS, Cagnacci F.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Modelling individual variability in habitat selection and movement using integrated step‐selection analysis PDF
Nilanjan Chatterjee, David Wolfson, Dongmin Kim, Juliana Velez, Smith Freeman, Nathan M Bacheler, Kyle Shertzer, J Christopher Taylor, John Fieberg
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Identifying signals of memory from observations of animal movements PDF
Dongmin Kim, Peter Thompson, David Wolfson, Jerod Merkle, Luiz Gustavo Rodrigues Oliveira-Santos, James Forester, Tal Avgar, Mark Lewis, John Fieberg
Movement Ecology
Six personas to adopt when framing theoretical research questions in biology PDF
Allison Shaw, Ave T Bisesi, Chris Wojan, Dongmin Kim, Martha Torstenson, Naven Narayanan, Peter Lutz, Ruby Ales, Cynthia Shao
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology PDF
Gould E, Fraser HS, Parker TH, Shinichi N, Griffith SC, Vesk PA, Fidler F,... Dongmin Kim, ..., Zimmerman GM, Zitomer RA
BMC Biology
Migration and tolerance shape host behaviour and response to parasite infection PDF
Dongmin Kim, Allison K Shaw
Journal of Animal Ecology
Conservation of North American migratory birds: insights from developments in tracking technologies PDF
Martha Torstenson, David Wolfson, Samuel Safran, Desiree Walton, Andrew Hallberg, Dongmin Kim, Yi Fan Tan, Gunnar Kramer, David Andersen
Avian Conservation and Ecology
Detecting disease progression from animal movement using hidden Markov models
Dongmin Kim, Théo Michelot, Katherine Mertes, Jared Stabach, John Fieberg
Journal of Applied Ecology
Perceived and observed biases within scientific communities: a case study in movement ecology PDF
Shaw AK, Fouda L, Mezzini S, Dongmin Kim, Chatterjee N, Wolfson D,Abrahms B, Attias N, Beardsworth CE, Beltran R, Binning SA, Blincow KM, Chan Y-C, Fronhofer EA, Hegemann A, Hurme ER, Iannarilli F, Kellner JB, McCoy KD, Rafiq K, Saastamoinen M, Sequeira AMM, Serota MW, Sumasgutner P, Tao Y, Torstenson M, Yanco SW, Beck KB, Bertram MG, Beumer LT, Bradarić M, Clermont J, Ellis-Soto D, Faltusová M, Fieberg J, Hall RJ, Kölzsch A, Lai S, Lee-Cruz L, Loretto M-C, Loveridge A, Michelangeli M, Mueller T, Riotte-Lambert L, Sapir N, Scacco M, Teitelbaum CS, Cagnacci F.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Variation in activity patterns of Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) across different temporal scales
Kushaal Selvarajah, Seung-Yun Baek, Hayato Takada, Dongmin Kim, Yusaku Yamada, Shinsuke Koike
European Journal of Wildlife Research
Understanding partial migration: linking genetic, developmental, and environmental drivers
Dongmin Kim, Ellen Aikens, Teresa Pegan, Paul Moorcroft, David Wolfson, Jesús Pinto-Ledezma
Ecology Letters
Seven reasons we need movement-based indicators in global policy
Ruth Oliver, Katherine Hébert, Lacey Hughey, Nathan Cooper,..., Dongmin Kim, ..., Laura Pollock
Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Detecting disease progression from animal movement using hidden Markov models
Dongmin Kim, Théo Michelot, Katherine Mertes, Jared Stabach, John Fieberg
Journal of Applied Ecology
Understanding partial migration: linking genetic, developmental, and environmental drivers
Dongmin Kim, Ellen Aikens, Teresa Pegan, Paul Moorcroft, David Wolfson, Jesús Pinto-Ledezma
Ecology Letters
Seven reasons we need movement-based indicators in global policy
Ruth Oliver, Katherine Hébert, Lacey Hughey, Nathan Cooper,..., Dongmin Kim, ..., Laura Pollock
Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Variation in activity patterns of Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) across different temporal scales
Kushaal Selvarajah, Seung-Yun Baek, Hayato Takada, Dongmin Kim, Yusaku Yamada, Shinsuke Koike
European Journal of Wildlife Research
Vitæ
Full CV in PDF.