Photo by Mathew E Burciaga

Welcome!

I am a Earth systems scientist working at the nexus of water, carbon, and people. My work focuses on the biophysical effects of drought at ecosystem to global scales using machine learning and remote sensing data. I’ve studied how groundwater drought affects carbon sequestration, the effectiveness of cutting-edge hyperspectral instruments in estimating plant water stress, and the benefits of sustainable management strategies on agricultural water-use efficiency. My postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford (Biosphere Sciences & Engineering Division) focused on land-surface modeling of water scarcity in Latin America. With a background in journalism and oral history, I’m interested in how climate research can emerge from societal need and respond to stakeholder priorities.

I’ve worked as a newspaper staff reporter and have written about seal population booms, tenant farmers and illicit mushroom foragers. My work has appeared in the Provincetown Independent, InsideClimate News and the Provincetown Banner. In Vanuatu, I collected oral histories about climate change.

I graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Geology & Geophysics and received my Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. I write songs for jazz guitar and regularly perform in the East Bay with my band.