Jacob C. Cooper.  Cameroon is widely hailed as Africa in miniature, possessing varied climates ranging from impenetrable jungle to expansive savannah to volcanic alpine grassland. This biodiversity hotspot has attracted ornithologists for centuries, and has proven to be home to some of the most unique birds on the planet. For his dissertation at The University of Chicago, Jacob Cooper is studying this country's rich ornithological history in order to create a complete picture of the region's birdlife and is combining our knowledge of species' distributions with state-of-the-art genetic techniques to understand the past, present, and future of Cameroon's birds.