Postdoctoral researchers
Luiza Aparecido
Postdoctoral researcher (2018-2020)
I am a Brazilian tropical forest ecologist aiming to answer and unveil the functional biology traits that determines the survival of plants (mainly trees) in a changing climate and environment. As a forest engineer (UFPR-Brazil) with a MS in Tropical Forest Science (INPA-Brazil) and PhD in Ecosystem Science and Management (Texas A&M), I hope to apply my skills and knowledge of forest inventory, ecophysiology and plant hydraulics to my current and future research. I am also interested in expanding my tropical forest ecology experience to other ecosystems, such as savannas and temperate forests; and enhance my experience with outreach programs for children and adults outside the academic field.
Pierre Gaüzère
Postdoctoral researcher (2018-2020)
I am an ecologist interested in macroecology, community ecology and biogeography. My general topics investigate whether and how the structure, composition and dynamics of natural communities are shaped by abiotic and biotic processes. I seek to integrate functional ecology, evolutionary ecology and biogeography to describe and explain how several facets of biodiversity are responding to global changes through space and time. I plead for integrative approaches and connections between theoretical and empirical ecology as well as conservation biology.
Lars Iversen
Postdoctoral researcher (2018-2020)
I am an early career environmental scientist interested in landscape level responses to global change, studied through landform types as well as ecological communities. I am trained partly as a freshwater ecologist and partly as a landscape geographer at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, from which I received my Ph.D. degree in 2017. Currently, I am working on interactions between land use and climate on species community assembly processes as a Carlsberg foundation research fellow hosted by the Macrosystems Ecology lab at ASU in collaboration with the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
Graduate students
Jarome Ali
Masters student (2016-2018)
Jarome is from Trinidad and was based at Imperial College London in England where he was co-supervised by Joseph Tobias. He is now a PhD student at Princeton University.
Andréa Davrinche
Masters student (2016-2017)
Andréa is from Reunion Island and was based at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. She was co-supervised by Yadvinder Malhi.
Carolyn Flower
Masters student (2018-2019)
I am interested in large scale and local scale geographic distributions of plant species, and how past distributions of humans have potentially influenced these distributions. I am also interested in researching plant functional traits and phenotypic integration, the linkages between useful plant diversity and overall biodiversity, and the factors that can predispose a species to being useful (both for ethnobotanical use and for restoration purposes). I would potentially like to research how contemporary use diversity of plant species (such as Sonoran desert species) can be expanded.
Clarke Knight
Masters student (2016-2017)
I work in California’s mixed-conifer forests where disturbance regimes, especially wildfire, drive community composition and ecosystem function. Currently, I am focused on leveraging reconstruction techniques from paleo-ecology to compare modern forests to those from the late-Holocene and early California settlement. My field sites are located in the Six Rivers National Forest, CA.
I am also convinced that scientific research should not remain abstract and unsullied by real-world problems, which has led to my interest in the application of science to recalcitrant environmental challenges. I am currently part of a team of scientists working on California’s 4th Climate Assessment Report to be published in summer 2018.
Before starting a PhD at UC Berkeley in 2016, I received two masters degrees — an MSc in Water Policy and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation — from the University of Oxford where I studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA in Chemistry from Smith College.
Courtenay Ray
PhD student (2017-2023)
I am a plant community ecologist and study how species interactions, dispersal, and functional traits influence demography and community assembly. I work in alpine and tundra plant communities, as well as with quaking aspen. I completed a master’s with Ingrid Parker at UC Santa Cruz where I measured invasion impacts and compared management methods for the invasive grass, Ehrharta erecta.
Jolanta Rieksta
Masters student (2017-2018)
Jolanta is a Latvian student who finished her degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology where she was co-supervised by Bente Graae and Rick Strimbeck. She is now a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen.
Kevin Sartori
Masters student (2018-2019)
Kevin is a student at the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive in Montpellier, France. He is primarily supervised by Cyrille Violle and visits the lab regularly.
K-12 teachers
Nguyên Huynh
Middle school teacher
My name is Nguyen Huynh (He/They). I am originally from Seattle, WA and moved down to the Bay Area in 2017 to start teaching as part of Teach for America. Now, I am a 4th Year Middle School Science Teacher. My teaching interests are: anti-racist teaching, social emotional learning (SEL), transformative justice (TJ), and culturally responsive teaching. Outside of work, I enjoy learning how to do drag makeup, learning Spanish, playing video games, watching horror movies.
Caroline Pechuzal
Middle school teacher
I am a high school biology teacher in Tucson, Arizona. I have a BS in biology from the University of Arizona and an M.Ed in secondary education from Northern Arizona University. Before I was a classroom teacher, I worked in conservation and outdoor education. As a teacher, I implement project-based learning and try to get my students outdoors as much as possible, whether through planning and installing a rain garden with native vegetation on campus or heading up the mountain for 4 days of inquiry-based learning with the University of Arizona’s Sky School program. I hope to inspire students to pursue post secondary education STEM opportunities by actively involving them in data collection and analysis and connecting them to a diverse group of people working in the field of life sciences.
Artists in residence
Juniper Harrower
Artist in residence (2022-2023)
Specializing in species interactions under climate change, Dr. Juniper Harrower works at the intersection of ecology and art. She uses rigorous science methods and a multimedia art practice to investigate human influence on ecological systems while seeking solutions that protect at-risk species and promote environmental justice. A founding member of the international arts collective The Algae Society Bioart Design Lab, she also founded and directs the environmental arts production company SymbioArtlab which contracts with national parks, universities, and the private sector. Her work is exhibited nationally and abroad and her research and artistic products have received wide exposure in popular media such as National Geographic, the associated press, podcasts, music festivals and conferences. Harrower is the director of the art+science initiative at UC Santa Cruz where she also teaches art.
Marcus Norris
Artist in residence (2022-2023)
Marcus Norris’ first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he Macgyvered together from spare parts while laying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds. Marcus has been called a “New Musical Talent in our Midst” by Chicago’s N’digo Magazine, and has made a number of achievements, including being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship for pursuing his PhD at UCLA, being chosen in 2020 for the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive, and in 2017 winning 1st prize in the Southeastern Composers League Competition. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow. In 2020 he founded South Side Symphony – the only orchestra that would perform “Back That Thang Up” on the same concert as Beethoven.
Technical staff
Andrea Echevarria
Staff research associate (2021-2023)
Rozália Kapás
Field technician (2015-2017)
Rozi is a Hungarian scientist based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She has an interest in alpine ecology and worked as a lab technician from 2015-2017. She is now a Ph.D. student at Stockholm University.
Izzi Niewiadomski
Staff research associate (2021-2023)
I’m Izzi (they/them) and I function as the leading leaf histology technician at the MEL; I recently graduated from UC Berkeley (Fall 2020) where I studied molecular environmental biology with a concentration in entomology/arthropod science. Additionally, I got an individualized minor in conservation and resource studies, with an emphasis in environmental ethics of agroecology. I’m fascinated by plants, insects, fungi, and the coevolved interrelationships between these groups. In the future, I plan on pursuing my PhD, which will be focusing on these ecological connections and interactions. I’m also passionate about biodiversity and habitat conservation, accessible science education, environmental ethics/philosophy, agroecology, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. In my free time I enjoy gardening, creating various mediums of visual art, and have recently started playing the drums!
Jose Tomas Sales
Staff research associate (2021-2024)
Undergraduate researchers (UC Berkeley)
Monica Antonio (2021-2023)
Alysha Batada (2021)
Lexi Caruthers (2021)
Bea Cundiff (2021-2024)
Daniel Chen (2020-2023)
Jessica Chan (2024)
Aunnesha Bhowmick (2021-2024)
Sonoma Carlos (2021-2023)
Kaitlyn Chen (2022-2023)
Ashley Chu (2022)
Adrian Fontao (2021-2023)
Haley Grimmer (2020-2022)
Brigitte Jaramillo (2020)
Diana Kalantar (2021-2023)
Seenu Madhavan (2021-2023)
Joseph Mann (2021-2022)
Samantha McDonough (2021-2024)
Brigitta Nguyen (2023)
Jacqueline Ramos (2023-2024)
Maria Regina De Los Angeles Ortiz (2024)
James Rohde (2021-2023)
Roshni Sahu (2022)
Rish Sanghavi (2021)
Kristin Sobschak (2020)
Satvik Sharma (2021-2023)
LeeDar Sneor (2021)
Meg S. (2021-2023)
Jason To (2021-2022)
Bradley Vu (2021-2024)
Natalie Vuong (2020)
Nicole Yokota (2021-2022)
Joyce Wang (2022)
Lan Wei (2022)
Britney Wu (2021)
Megan Wu (2022-2023)
Emily Xie (2020-2023)
Undergraduate researchers (Arizona State University)
Nikole Awbery (2019)
Giovanni Bermudez (2019)
Ivanna Caspeta (2019)
Otis Clyne (2018)
Eliana Danowski-Underiner (2019)
Miguel Duarte (2018-2019)
LeeAnn Huang (2019)
Deidra Johnson (2018-2019)
Shama Joshi (2019)
Madison Lusk (2019)
Crystal Suazo (2018-2019)
Noah Weakly (2018)
Sabrina Woo (2018-2019)
Undergraduate researchers (REU)
Cecina Babich Morrow (2016)
Bella Banka (2021)
Gavin Belfry (2020)
Marco Castaneda (2017-2018)
Lake Crawford (2015)
Sabastian Escobar (2016)
Richard Forbes (2015)
Lisa Garcia (2022-2023)
Jake Gerber (2018)
Michael Hensley (2021)
Rebecca Lehman (2015)
Orlando Rios (2020-2021)
Dillon Sapena (2017)
Nicole Smith (2020-2021)
Jordan Stark (2015)
Savannah Troy (2018-2019)
Undergraduate researchers (HBCU partnership)
Carlos Jackson (2023)
Post-baccalaureate researchers
Breanna Carrillo Johnson (2023)