Lab Members and Collaborators

Current and Past Members

caylor.md

Kelly Caylor, Professor

Kelly is the Director of the Earth Research Institute at UC Santa Barbara and Professor in the Dept. of Geography and Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.

bmorgan.md

Bryn Morgan, PhD Student

Bryn uses remote sensing, modeling, and field methods to study vegetation water use in Southern and East Africa, France, and the Southwest U.S.

gerlein-safdi.md

Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, PhD (2017)

Michigan Society of Fellows postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Michigan

franz.md

Trenton Franz, PhD (2011)

Trenton received his PhD in 2011. In the fall of 2013, he started as an Assistant Professor of Hydrogeophyiscs in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska.

gower.md

Drew Gower, PhD (2020)

Drew is studying the effects of hydrologic variability on food security in Kenya.

fodonnell.md

Frances O'Donnell, PhD (2013)

Frances is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Auburn University.

guan.md

Kaiyu Guan, PhD. (2013)

Kaiyu received his PhD in 2013 and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

good.md

Stephen Good, PhD. (2013)

Stephen received his PhD in 2013. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University.

decarlo.md

Keita DeCarlo, PhD (2019)

Keita is interested in the influence of soil phenomena on hydrological processes in drylands.

tuholske.md

Cascade Tuholske, PhD (2020)

Cascade Tuholske graduated with his PhD in 2020 and now is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia’s Earth Institute.

krell.md

Natasha Krell, PhD (2021)

Natasha is interested in dryland food security and climate variability impacts on smallholder agricultural systems.

chavarro-rincon.md

Diana Chavarro-Rincon, Postdoctoral Research Associate (2010-2012)

Diana studied the role that roots play in determining seasonal patterns of water redistribution. She is now an independent consultant in water management in the Netherlands.

bhattachan.md

Abinash Bhattachan, MS (2008)

Abi received his MS degree from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, and his PhD from the University of Virginia. He is currently a postdoc at UCLA.

lindner.md

Garth Lindner, MS (2008)

Garth received an MS degree from the Department of Geography at Indiana University.

lester.md

Alex Lester, MSE (2010)

Alex received his MSE in 2008 and is currently teaching high school math in Washington, D.C.

nadeau.md

Patrick Nadeau, MSE Student

Patrick is applying his interests in soil science, environmental chemistry, and hydrology to addressing issues of environmental degradation and underdevelopment, especially in Africa.

avery.md

Ryan Avery, MS (2020), Data Scientist

Ryan studies how vegetation remote sensing, machine learning, and ecohydrological modeling can characterize the relationships between crop water use and groundwater depletion.

chen.md

Jeremy Chen, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2010)

Jeremy was a PEI intern involved in our root excavation work during the summer of 2010.

rogers.md

Rodrigo Munoz Rogers, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2010)

Rodrigo was an intern working with us in 2010 on our root excavation project. His duties included excavations and chief operator of the camp’s vuvuzela.

ryan.md

Kathleen Ryan, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2011)

safford.md

Hannah Safford, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2011)

suh.md

Alice Suh, BSE Thesis (2012)

Alice was a research intern in our lab during the summer of 2011 and a thesis student during the 2011-2012 academic year. She wrote her thesis on methods for real-time characterization of the isotopic composition of plant transpiration fluxes.

kemeny.md

Preston Kemeny, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2012)

rodriguez.md

Maria Fabiola Rodriguez, REU (2012)

Maria joined the Caylor lab at the Mpala Research Center for the summer of 2012 to collect water samples and analyze their oxygen isotope content.

grossman.md

Ray Grossman, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2013)

Ray worked on UAV-related research during the summer of 2013.

ragazzo.md

Gabby Ragazzo, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2013)

Gabby worked during the summer of 2013 on the Mapping Africa project.

choi.md

Johnathan Choi, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2013)

Jonathan workied at the Mpala Research Centre this summer where he studied soil and leaf chemistry.

smith.md

Katie Smith, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2013)

Katie worked at Mpala studying plant water stress and water source around hippo habitats.

ingram.md

Allison Ingram, Summer Research Intern (2013)

Allison Ingram worked on the Drought Open-Source Ecology (DOSE) project analyzing impacts of 2012’s drought on forest growth and mortality.

nyathi.md

Sindiso Nyathi, Research Intern, Sensor Development (2013)

Sindiso worked on estimating transpiration rates of oak and pine trees under varying conditions of water availability using sap flow probes.

jones.md

Jackie Jones, Laboratory Learning Intern & Hutchins Scholar (2013)

Jackie developed CO2 and Light response curves as well as other key ecophysiological parameters for species at the Silas Little Experimental Forest.

goodman.md

Sally Goodman,Grand Challenges Intern, Thesis Student (2013)

Sally spent the summer in Nanyuki, Kenya studying water use and availability in the Mt. Kenya region for her senior thesis.

harkins.md

Eliza Harkins, Grand Challenges Intern, Thesis Student (2013)

Eliza worked in several Kenyan communities to map and characterize irrigation networks.

sinkler.md

Craig Sinkler, Summer Research Intern (2014)

Craig worked on the influence of dew droplets on the energy balance of Colocasia esculenta leaves.

odonnell.md

James O'Donnell, Laboratory Learning Intern & Hutchins Scholar (2014)

Jimmy joined our lab through the Hutchins Scholars program at the Lawrenceville School. He worked on new techniques for organics removal in plant water samples.

zhao.md

Kathy Zhao, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2014)

Kathy worked with Hilary Wayland on photosynthetic characteristics of Kenyan trees.

signell.md

Julia Signell, Mpala Research Intern (2014)

Julia Signell was our 2014-2015 Intern at the Mpala Research Centre, where she kept our tower healthy and did PulsePod-related outreach work to local communities.

principato.md

Eric Principato, Research Intern (2014)

Eric was a research intern working with Lyndon Estes on ecological applications of UAVs and especially UAV image processing workflows.

kruijssen.md

Matteo Kruijssen, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2014)

Matteo was a PEI Grand Challenge Intern in 2014 working on different aspects of crop management.

morgan.md

Taylor Morgan, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2014)

Taylor assessed streamflow variations in the rivers emanating from Mount Kenya.

lane.md

Haley Lane, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2014)

Haley Lane assessed agricultural water availability for the communities surrounding Nanyuki, Kenya on the Laikipia plateau.

luo.md

Dee Luo, PEI Grand Challenges Intern (2014)

Dee Luo helped develop a remote sensing algorithm to accurately classify the agricultural landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa under the Mapping Africa initiative.

bernard.md

Miranda Bernard, Thesis Student (2015)

Miranda wrote her senior thesis on plant water source changes in Kenya.

duwan.md

Connor Duwan, Laboratory Learning Intern & Hutchins Scholar (2015)

Connor joined our lab through the Hutchins Scholars program at the Lawrenceville School. He worked on the relative influence of foliar uptake and foliar shielding on leaf water isotopes.

wang.md

Feng Wang, Visiting Researcher (2015)

Feng was a visiting researcher from the Institute of Desertification Studies from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, located in Beijing, China.

gong.md

Daozhi Gong, Visiting Researcher (2014)

Daozhi was a visiting researcher from the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science.

pérez (Unicode Encoding Conflict).md

Guiomar Ruiz Pérez, Visiting PhD Student (2015)

Guiomar was a visiting PhD student from the Universitat Politècnica de València focusing on the use of satellite data to implement parsimonious ecohydrological models in water-controlled areas.