Maria Uriarte is a Professor in the Dept. of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. She also serves as adjunct faculty in the Dept. of Ecology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Prof. Uriarte studies the processes that drive forest dynamics in tropical regions, with a focus on forest recovery after natural disturbance events (hurricanes) and human land use and the consequences of these dynamics for ecosystem services. Her current projects are based in Puerto Rico and Brazil.
Alyssa received her BS in Landscape Management and MS in Environmental Science from Brigham Young University. Her master’s thesis focused on understanding seed ecology of native sub-alpine forb species in the Intermountain West. Alyssa is interested in understanding how catastrophic disturbance impacts ecosystem resilience. She is excited to be doing this work in Puerto Rico– assessing implications for future forest resilience by investigating forest response after Hurricane Maria.
Enikoe received her BS in Environmental Science from UCLA and her Masters of Forestry and Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University. In the past, her work has spanned tropical agroforestry, urban soil contamination, mycology, remote sensing, and machine learning. Her current research interests lie in tropical ecology and how community-level interactions between plants and animals scale to shape forest structure and function at the landscape level. In particular, she is focused on how seed dispersers influence succession after disturbance in the Amazon. She also loves anything to do with expanding the use of remote sensing tools in the tropics.
Isa received her B.S. in Environmental Studies from Yale University, where she studied how savanna landscapes are responding to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. After graduating, she joined the Global Forest Watch platform as a product manager working on how to communicate tree cover loss data to diverse stakeholders. She is interested in understanding how tropical forests respond to drought, with an emphasis on tree physiology.
Stephen received his BS in Biology from Boston College. Before starting his graduate work, he spent two years in Oregon studying how bird communities respond to wildfire and forest regeneration. His current work explores how hurricanes reshape tropical bird communities and forest structure in Puerto Rico through the use of LiDAR and bioacoustic monitoring.
Soham is a second-year master’s student in the DeFries and Uriarte Lab. He is broadly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to conservation, with a focus on how land can be managed effectively for restoration, biodiversity conservation, and human food production. He received his BS (Honors) in Wildlife Biology from the University of Vermont, where he studied the spatial ecology of free-ranging domestic dogs in west-central India. For his master’s research, he is collaborating with WWF–Perú to examine predator–prey dynamics in cattle ranching landscapes of the Peruvian Amazon, to inform conflict mitigation strategies.
Link to my website: https://sohampmehta.com/
Yan Zhang is a master’s student in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. Her current research examines how fire disturbance and land-use change shape soil fungal communities, especially mycorrhizae, in tropical landscapes. Prior to Columbia, Yan received her B.S. in Environmental Science and Management from UC Davis, where she conducted research in agroecology and pest management. Her broader interests include sustainable agriculture, ecosystem resilience, and global change impacts on belowground communities.
Rachel is a first-year undergraduate pursuing a BA in Environmental Biology. She previously worked as an intern for two years in the Cruzan Lab at Portland State University. There, she conducted research on how both genetic and environmental features determine seed traits for a wind-dispersed plant, Achyrachaena mollis. Rachel is currently interested in the interaction between seed masting and climate variability, and she is excited to be using seed phenology and tree census data from Puerto Rico.
Luis received his BS in Environmental Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and MPH in Environmental Health from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus. He is currently working as the Field Technician for the “Tropical Forest Drought experiment and tree Ecophysiology research project” where he undertakes multiple tasks to maintain and collect data from multiple areas of study in El Yunque National Rainforest
Lab Alumni
Laura Emily Boeschoten, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Ghent University, Belgium Climate Center
Eva Arroyo, Ph.D. student
Shawn Fujioka, MA student
Current position: Project Coordinator, South Bay Cities Council of Governments.
Roí Ankori-Karlinsky, Ph.D. student
Current position: ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Forest Service.
Chris Smith-Martin, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota. Website
Jazlynn Shaydra Hall, Ph.D. student
Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, USA.
Pedro Ribeiro Piffer, Ph.D. student
Current position: Technical Manager, ART Secretariat. Winrock International
Andrew Quebbeman, Ph.D. student
Current position: Subscription Experiences Research Analyst, The New York Times, USA.
Naomi Schwartz, Ph.D. student
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Benedicte Bachelot, Ph.D. student
Current position: Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University, USA.
Bob Muscarella, Ph.D. student
Current position: Associate Professor, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Marina Côrtes, Ph.D. student
Current position: Associate Professor, UNESP – Rio Claro, Brazil.
Eli Dueker, Ph.D. student
Current position: Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies, Bard College, USA.
Elizabeth Nichols, Ph.D. student
Current position: Foreign Affairs Officer at U.S. Department of State.
Meghan M. McGinty, Ph.D. student
Current position: Owner of Cultivate Nature.
Tanja Crk, MA student
Current position: GIS Specialist, U.S. EPA.
Timothy J. Agin, MA student
Current position: Ph.D student, University of South Dakota, USA.
Andrew Budsock, MA Student
Current position: Environmental Consultant, ERM USA.
Sam Farrar, Research Technician
Current position: PhD Student, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Charles Yackulic, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: USGS Research Scientist, Arizona, USA.
Liza Comita, Postdoctoral Associate & Earth Institute Fellow
Current position: Professor, Yale Forestry School, USA.
Marina Anciães, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Researcher, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia – INPA, Brazil.
Jesse Lasky, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Associate Professor, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Leandro Reverberi Tambosi, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Assistant Professor, Universidade Federal do ABC, Brazil
Xiaohiu Feng, Postdoctoral Associate
Current position: Assistant Professor, China.