Graduate Students
Abi Bhattachan
Abi is from Kathmandu, Nepal. He got his B.S. in Watershed Science at Utah State University in 2006. He then went on to work with Kelly Caylor at Indiana University for his masters in Environmental Science. Abi started his Phd at University of Virginia in Spring 2009. His current research is focused in understanding stabilization/activation of Kalahari dunes in response to grazing and aridification.
Joel Carr
Joel received his BA in Mathematics and Environmental Science from UVA in 1999, continued on at UVA for his Masters(2002) modeling the impacts of flocculation on contaminant sorption during continental shelf sediment transport events. He then pursued a Master of Teaching from Pacific University(2005), and happily elucidated youngsters in the glories of mathematics in Southern Oregon. He is now back at UVA for his PhD. His primary interests are the resilience and stability of ecosystems with eco-hydrologic feedbacks. His current research is focusing on the stability, bistability of seagrasses at the VCR-LTER and tree islands at the Everglades LTER.
Yufei He
Yufei grew up in Sichuan, China. She got her B.S. in Astrophysics and M.S. in Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Environment at Peking University, Beijing. Her previous experiences included studies on atmospheric turbulence and planetary boundary layer over Gobi desert in Northwestern China. Yufei started her Ph.D. in University of Virginia in 2008. She is co-advised by Prof. de Wekker and Prof. D'Odoico and studies the feedbacks between shrub encroachment and regional climate in central New Mexico, by using mainly micrometeorological observations, radiosondes and atmospheric models.
Former Students
Sujith Ravi, Ph.d., 2008
Lixin Wang, Ph.d., 2008
Ryan Emanuel, Ph.d., 2007
Marcia DeLonge, M.S., 2006
Thoralf Meyer
Thoralf has been living and working in Botswana since 1998. His doctoral research takes place along a 950 km transect that stretches across the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. His work assesses the fractional cover of photosynthetic active or green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation and soils, providing insight into how these components vary spatiotemporally along the rainfall gradient of the Kalahari. He is collecting aboveground vegetation data, leaf- and canopy-level spectral characteristics, and soil spectra and which will be compared to soil carbon and belowground biomass/root distribution collected along the same transect. These estimates will be used to test hypotheses about the dependence of carbon stocks on climate in the Kalahari and will be relevant to understanding the effect of anticipated climate change in the region on above-and belowground carbon storage in the region.
Christiane Runyan
Originally from the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, Christiane Runyan attended the University of Wyoming, where she competed on their college rodeo team before graduating with a B.S in 2005. After graduation, she worked for a sustainable consulting firm and volunteered for various environmental organizations. She began graduate school at the Johns Hopkins University in 2006, while working for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER and the Climate Institute in Washington DC. Christiane received an M.S. in Environmental Science in 2008. Before starting at the UVA, she worked for the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education where she: setup an eddy covariance flux tower; designed and installed a soil sensor network; examined the requisite scale and quality of data required to simulate hydrological processes in an urban watershed using a rainfall-runoff model; and analyzed diurnal fluctuations in shallow groundwater data attributable to evapotranspiration.
D’Odorico Lab Reunion, December 2009.
House of Nanking, San Francisco.
