Lara Kueppers is an Associate Professor in the Energy and Resources group at UC Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist at Berkeley Lab. Her group conducts field experiments, makes long-term observations, and uses computational models to investigate the effects of global change on terrestrial ecosystems and their climate feedbacks, from alpine tundra to tropical forests. She also enjoys collaborating with engineers, economists, and public policy experts to address societally relevant questions related to environmental change.
Barbara Bomfim is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She received her M.S. in Tropical Forest Management from the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and her Ph.D. in Soils and Biogeochemistry from the University of California, Davis. She spent one year as a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Oregon, Eugene, conducting field and laboratory experiments focused on drought and warming effects on soil biogeochemistry in prairies along a latitudinal gradient in the Pacific Northwest. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, she is part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics project, quantifying the effects of major wind disturbances on tropical forest nutrient cycling.
Polly Buotte currently works on modeling the effects of climate on vegetation productivity, mortality, and distribution. She has a BS in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State, an MS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana, and a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho.
Adam Hanbury-Brown is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley studying tree seedling recruitment in tropical forests and Roosevelt elk movements and habitat selection in Northern California.
Hilary Henry is an ERG Masters student. She is interested in connecting science, policy, and community engagement to protect ecosystems of the Western United States. Hilary has been measuring and synthesizing data on drought traits of western trees. She has a BA in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University, worked for the Gunnison Public Lands Initiative to protect public lands, and was the Open Space program administrator for the Town of Crested Butte.
Jessica Katz is a MS/PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group studying approaches to integrating projections of environmental change into energy infrastructure planning and public lands management.
Nicole Lau is a research assistant currently working on archiving data from the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment. She received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management (ESRM) from the University of Washington, where she focused on forest ecology and forest management in Washington State and Colorado.
Tom Powell is a postdoc at Berkeley Lab working with NGEE Tropics team to model tropical forest dynamics in response to climate variability and change. More generally, Tom is a Forest ecologist that studies how disturbances, climate change, and land management impact forest ecosystem function and services. He completed his PhD in 2015 at Harvard University.
Valeri Vasquez is a PhD candidate with the Energy and Resources Group studying the use of genetic-based interventions for the control of mosquito-borne diseases. She is particularly focused on the dynamics of gene drive systems under changing climatic conditions.
Rachel Ward is a MS/PhD student studying tree reproduction and recruitment in tropical forests and agro-forestry management.
Marshall Worsham is a PhD student studying the connections between forest dynamics and water. He uses remote sensing data and open-source modeling tools to explore how disturbances affect forest structure and forest hydrology. He is also broadly interested in climate, conflict, and collaborative resource management in the American West. He has a BA in political science from Davidson College and an MPhil in political theory from the University of Oxford.
Lab Alumni
Elmera Azadpour completed her internship at Berkeley Lab investigating the effects of rainfall gradients on future GPP across the Isthmus of Panama. She is pursuing a Masters in Environmental Science & Management, with an emphasis in Energy & Climate at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School.
Sophia Bagshaw received her BS in Environmental Sciences with an ERG minor, including an honors thesis on variation in redwood hydraulic traits. She is now a research assistant at UC Davis measuring hydraulic traits in grapevines.
Dianne Quiroz completed an ERG Masters degree quantifying rates of nitrogen fixation and bacterial community composition in conifer foliage in Western U.S. forests.
Meredith Jabis completed her PhD in December 2018, studying alpine community responses to climate variability and change.
Yan Bai was a visiting PhD student, now back at Beijing Normal University completing his PhD on stomatal and canopy conductance in dryland ecosystems using field data and inverse modeling approaches.
Claudia Johan is a UC Berkeley undergraduate who helped to synthesize data on tropical tree reproduction.
Justin Bagley was a postdoc at Berkeley Lab studying land-atmosphere interactions in managed landscapes of the Great Plains. He now works in the private sector on energy efficiency.
Andrea Campanella was a staff research associate on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment and is now Assistant Director of the James Reserve and Oasis de los Osos.
Cristina Castanha was a research scientist on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment and is a Principal Research Associate at Berkeley Lab.
Erin Conlisk was a postdoc and research associate on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment and is now a Quantitative Ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science.
Yaqiong Lu completed her PhD in 2013, modeling climate-ecosystem feedbacks in agricultural systems and was a postdoc with Lara and with Elliott Campbell investigating effects of climate changes on crop yields. She is now a Research Scientist at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Andrew Moyes was a postdoc on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment, investigating physiological responses of establishing conifers to climate variation, and a researcher with Lara and with Carolin Frank studying nitrogen fixation by bacteria associated with subalpine trees. He is currently a research associate at Berkeley Lab.
Kaitlin Lubetkin completed her PhD in 2015 on conifer encroachment into subalpine meadows in the Sierra Nevada. She is currently a data scientist with the Great Basin Institute and BLM.
Ethan Brown was a research associate for the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment from 2011-2014 and is now working in the private sector.
Daniel Winkler’s M.S. research focused on the effects of climate change on alpine plant productivity as part of the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment on Niwot Ridge in Colorado. He received a PhD from UC Irvine and is now a postdoc at USGS.
Miguel Fernandez completed his PhD in 2013 and is now director of Latin American & Caribbean Programs at NatureServe. He uses spatiotemporal tools, such as GIS, remote sensing and species distribution modeling, to understand the effects of global change on biodiversity patterns.
Ramona Butz established GLORIA sites at RMBL as part of her postdoc and is currently the Northern Province Ecologist for the Klamath, Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, and Six Rivers National Forests, US Forest Service.
Akasha Faist was a research associate on the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment, received a PhD from University of Colorado, Boulder and is now an Assistant Professor at University of New Mexico.
Scott Ferrenberg was a staff research associate with the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment. He completed his PhD at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is now an Assistant Professor at University of New Mexico.
Gina Radieve was a research associate in the lab and is now working for the California Department of Water Resources.
Jennifer Wolf completed her M.S. in Environmental Systems in 2011. Her research focused on characterizing limber pine physiological response to climate change. She currently breeds golden-doodle dogs and volunteers for climate adaptation organizations in Berkeley.
Kueppers Lab Group 