Mr. Erez Maza is a collection manager of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Steinhardt Museum, and a lab manager and research assistant at the School of Zoology, at the Tel Aviv University.
He received his MSc from the Department of Zoology in 2008, and wrote his thesis on “Reptile diversity in three habitats: planted pine forest, maquis, and Mediterranean batha in the Meron mountain range,” supervised by Prof. Tamar Dayan. His research was part of a project that monitored the presence of rodents, arthropods, and plants in different habitats, with the purpose of comparing planted forest habitats to natural habitats. Based at the Meron field school near Safed, Mr. Maza studied a unique and complex ecological system existing under changing conditions and development pressures.
Erez’s main interests are ecology and nature conservation in Israel with a focus on reptiles. As part of his museum activities, he collects specimens from all over the country, in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Erez is a former instructor and coordinator for Nature Campus, and he also serves as a lab manager in Prof. Shai Meiri’s lab. He now participates in a global macroecology reptile project in which he helps lab students map the distribution of reptiles around the world using GIS (geographic information system) software. Erez, who is the author of four peer-reviewed scientific papers, enjoys working with his colleagues in the unique atmosphere of the Steinhardt Museum.