Eye on ESPM Graduate Student Perspectives
| Graduate Student | Degree Goal & Year | Guiding Professor & Division | Research | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | ||
| Thomas Azwell | ESPM & EMST | Sally Fairfax Society & Environment | Environmental Education: Interested in creating participatory environmental education programs with an overall goal of fostering synergistic and symbiotic collaborations amongst the scientific community. These programs will provide opportunities for students in underserved communities to attend college, educate the community about urban environmental issues, develop partnerships through direct outreach, and initiate community and environmental activism through direct action projects that develop research and leadership skills, and strive to build healthier communities. I am currently developing an environmental education course, ESPM 178a, which partners Cal students with urban secondary science teachers, graduate students, and local environmental restoration projects and research agencies. | azwell@berkeley.edu |
| Asmeret Asefaw Berhe | Ph.D ESPM | John Harte Ecosystem Science | Terrestrial Biogeochemistry - Significance of erosion for soil carbon sequestration; and physical, chemical and biochemical mechanisms of soild organic carbon stabilization. | aaberhe@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Graham Bullock | Ph.D ESPM | | International environmental politics, the governance of global production, environmental certification, eco-labeling, and the interface between public and private regulatory regimes. | gbullock@nature.berkeley.edu 529-7849 |
| Cole Burton | Ph.D ESPM | Ecosystem Sciences | Wildlife conservation ecology in and around protected areas in West Africa: Influences of bushmeat hunting, habitat change, community-based conservation adn livelihood alternatives. | cburton@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Clint Carroll | Ph.D ESPM | Nancy Peluso Society and Environment | Environmental policy and natural resource management in Indian Country. Specifically looking at the itnersection of traditional ecological knowledge, tribal economic development and environmental policy in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Active member of the Students of Color in ESPM group and the UC Berkeley American Indian Graduate Student Association. | ccarroll@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Qi Chen | Ph.D ESPM | Ecosystem Sciences | Remote sensing, GIS, Ecosystem modeling | qch@nature.berkeley.edu |
| McCrea Cobb | Ph.D ESPM | Reg Barrett Ecosystem Sciences | Wildlife ecology and management, particularly the population of dynamics of ungulates. My project is on the spatial and temporal patterns in the population dynamics of tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore. | mcobb@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Laura Dane | Ph.D ESPM | Mary Firestone Ecosystem Sciences | Soil microbial ecology and biogeochemistry - am interested in movement and sequestration of nutrients in forest soils. | ldane@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Jason Delborne | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Romm Society & Environment | Biotechnology policy. Specifically how US regulatory agencies have responded to the development of agricultural biotechnologies. | delborne@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Dan Fahey | Ph.D ESPM | Nancy Peluso Society and Environment | Social and environmental effects of post-conflict development; incorporation of natural resources into armed confict; focus on Great Lakes Region of Africa. | dfahey@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Allison Green | Ph.D ESPM | Joe McBride Ecosystem Sciences | Influence of climate change and nitrogen deposition on vegetation at local and landscape scales; rare plant ecology; exotic species. | agreen@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Ashley Holt | Ph.D ESPM | Peng Gong Ecosystem Sciences | Disease ecology and spatial epidemiology; the use of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies to understand how environmental changes are linked to the transmission of infectious and vector-borne diseases. | ashleyh@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Sikina Jinnah | ESPM | Katy O'Neill Society and Environment | Trade/environment conflict at the international level. The effect of overlapping obligations between trade and biodiversity regimes on international environmental cooperation. | sjinnah@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Mark Jordan | Ph.D ESPM | Reg Barrett Ecosystem Sciences | Population ecology and conservation genetics of endangered mammals. Developing monitoring methods for carnivores in managed landscape. | mjordan@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Leda Kobziar | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. McBride Ecosystem Sciences | Fire ecology - the use of historical data in determining the range of variability for a regionšs fire cycles and the implementation of a prescribed burning prescription based on that range of variability. I'm also interested in post- fire vegetative succession characteristics. | lkobziar@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Chris Lever | Ph.D ESPM | Keith Gilless, Sally Fairfax Society & Environment | Relationships between United States Federal land managers and surrounding communities; 19th and early 20th century support of US National Parks by civic and corporate advertisers; the role of non-profit partners funding of US National Parks. | clever@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Rachel Linzer | Ph.D ESPM | Matteo Garbelotto Ecosystem Sciences | I study the ecology and evolution of forest pathogens, including the role of interspecific pathogen competition in Sudden Oak Death | rwarner@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Susan Mahler | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Gong Ecosystem Sciences | Landscape and vineyard level remote sensing analysis of vineyards. On the landscape scale I am working on image classification and detection of vineyards. Work at the vineyard level includes hyperspectral analysis of vine canopies. | smahler@nature.berkeley.edu (530)529-1409 |
| Erika Marin-Spiotta | Ph.D ESPM | Whendee Silver Ecosystem Sciences | Biogeochemistry/Soil Science/Forest Ecology. Ecological consequences of reforestation of abandoned agriculture lands in the tropics. Changes in forest structure, biomass and composition during secondary succession. Mechanisms of carbon sequestration in soils. Use of stable isotopes, radio carbon, and 13C-NMR. | aurios@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Susan McIlroy | Ph.D ESPM | Barbara Allen-Diaz Ecosystem Sciences | Meadow ecology, livestock grazing, plant-water interactions, and natural resource management | smcilroy@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Veronica Morris | Ph.D ESPM | Richard Dodd Ecosystem Sciences | Tanoak microsattelite development and development of microarray for Coast Redwood to study gene expression in response to fire. | vmorris@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Keiko Okano | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Purcell Insect Biology | Agroecology mainly biological control related. | kokano@pathos.berkeley.edu |
| Mark Philbrick | Ph.D ESPM | David Winickoff Society and Environment | Governance of emerging technologies with environmental ramifications, especially agricultural biotechnology and nanoscale technology, at the national and international levels. WTO disputes and negotiations, participatory risk assessment, science and technology studies. | mphilbri@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Sarah Placella | Ph.D ESPM | Mary Firestone Ecosystem Sciences | Microbial ecology of carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils. Specifically, my research seeks to establish the link between functional gene expression and ecosystem-l;evel process rates by studying nitrification in California annual grasslands | placella@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Eric Punkay | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Beissinger Ecosystem Sciences | The integration of behavioral ecology and conservation biology as well as the population dynamics of vertebrates primarily birds. | epunkay@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Kate Rassbach | Ph.D. Wildland Resource Science | Professor Huntsinger Ecosystem Sciences | Revegetation of large massively disturbed sites e.g. open-pit mines. Current policy seeks use of locally-collected native seed. Questions focus on seed collection effects. | rassbach@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Sadie Ryan | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Getz Insect Biology | Conservation biology and wildlife disease ecology; I'm working on a GIS model of a Bovine Tuberculosis epidemic in African Buffalo in Kruger National Park South Africa. | sjryan3@yahoo.com |
| Menelaos Stavrinides | MS/Ph. ESPM | Nick Mills Insect Biology | Sustainable mite management in vineyards: The ecology and population genetics of mites and their predators in vineyards. Combinability of reduced-risk and "organic" pesticides with predatory mites. | mstav@berkeley.edu |
| Adriana Sulak | PhD.. ESPM | Prof. Huntsinger Ecosystem Sciences | I am interested in rural land conservation and open space preservation. My project looks at working ranches in the central Sierra as a vehicle to this end. We are investigating connections between public land forage and private ranchland. | sulak@nature.berkeley.edu (510) 643 7243 |
| Jimmy Tran | Ph.D. ESPM | Dara O'Rourke Society & Environment | nternational governance of industry, private regulation of global production systems, particular interest in the role of non-state actors in influencing social and environmental standards and norms in East Asia (China and Vietnam). | jimtran@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Nicole VanderSal | Ph.D ESPM | Gillespie Insect Biology | Ecology, Psychology and Arachnology: Studying the effects f multimodal prey warning signals on jumping spider learning and memory under laboratory and field conditions. | ndv@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Diana Pei Wu | Ph.D. ESPM | Prof. Chapela Ecosystem Sciences | (1) Environmental justice and environmental racism, (2) genealogoes and formations of racism and imperialism in the U.S. and Latin America, with an emphasis on Mexico and Oaxaca, (3) communit-led research and activism for environmental protection, conservation and development, and (4) social movements for social and environmental justice. | dianawu@nature.berkeley.edu |
| Esther Zeledon | Ph.D ESPM | Maggi Kelly Ecosystem Sciences | Land-use change in Nicaragua. I have 3 components of my research project. 1. I will be answering the "how much" in terms of land-use/land-cover change. I will be analyzing this through the use of remote sensing imagery. 2. I will be answering the "why" or the driving forces of this land-use change, which will require me to visit Jinotego (northern Nicaragua) and acquire interviews of locals, government and etc. and take GIS points of the locations I vist. 3. I will create a land-use science model integrating both the science and social science data that will prepresent: past, current and estimate future land-use/land-cover in Jinotega, Nicaragua that can be used for management purposes | ezeledon@nature.berkeley.edu |