Nadia Zikiou, Ph.D.
Cluster 1 – Deep Learning and Image Processing for Transformational Environmental Science
Research description: The main mission of Nadia’s work remains the study of environmental changes and Land use/Land cover. This work is based on Sparse Representation methods, Machine Learning (SVM and CNN) and high-resolution image analysis.
Fellowship dates: July 2022 - January 2025
Nicholas O’Mara, Ph.D.
Cluster 2 – Trophic Ecology of African Savannas
Research description: Nicholas uses molecular and isotopic indicators of past environmental conditions preserved in sedimentary archives to try to better understand the interactions between climate, vegetation, and wildfires in African savanna ecosystems.
Fellowship dates: September 2022 - August 2024
Mohammed Armani, Ph.D.
Cluster 2 – Trophic Ecology of African Savannas
Research description: Armani’s research will focus on elucidating the trajectories of change across distinct biomes (forest, thicket, and savanna) in the forest—savanna boundary of West Africa under recent climate change—land use change interactions.
Fellowship dates: January 2023 - December 2024
Henry Arenas-Castro, Ph.D.
Cluster 3 – The Genomic Basis of Climate Resiliency
Research description: Henry is an evolutionary geneticist interested in studying the processes that create and maintain biodiversity. Originally from Colombia, he completed his PhD at the University of Queensland, Australia, where he investigated the evolution of mate choice in plants. Henry has also studied the consequences of language barriers in science.
Fellowship dates: August 2023 - July 2025
Pauline Raimondeau, Ph.D.
Cluster 3 – The Genomic Basis of Climate Resiliency
Research description: Pauline seeks to understand the factors influencing plant evolution and adaptation. She uses comparative genomic methods to investigate the origin of drought physiological differences across the geographic distribution of Mimulus guttatus. This work will help predict population persistence and future species distributions.
Fellowship dates: August 2023 - July 2025
Vanessa Tonet, Ph.D.
Cluster 3 – The Genomic Basis of Climate Resiliency
Research description: Vanessa is a plant physiologist, and her research focuses on understanding plant tolerance and adaptation to drought by looking at the plant water transport system. Her work integrates the understanding at a fine scale of key leaf physiological processes with plant traits variation along environmental gradients.
Fellowship dates: August 2023 - July 2025
David Herrera, Ph.D.
Cluster 4 – Mechanisms and Trajectories of Post-Disturbance Recovery in Tropical Forests
Research description: David’s research is focused on understanding how tropical trees survive the stresses of environmental change and the role of carbon storage dynamics in their ability to survive. In recent years, he has been conducting field experiments and measuring tree traits related to carbon dynamics mainly in Brazil.
Fellowship dates: March 2024 - February 2026
Mareli Sanchez-Julia, Ph.D.
Cluster 4 – Mechanisms and Trajectories of Post-Disturbance Recovery in Tropical Forests
Research description: Mareli uses field-based and experimental methods to explore how soil biochemistry and plant functional traits influence the composition of plant-symbiotic fungi in lowland tropical forests. She also researches that trees use to overcome nutrient limitation and the factors that mediate plant carbon allocation to belowground resource acquisition.
Fellowship dates: May 2024 - April 2026
Anita Weissflog, Ph.D.
Cluster 4 – Mechanisms and Trajectories of Post-Disturbance Recovery in Tropical Forests
Research description: Anita’s research aims at understanding how plant-insect and plant-microbial interactions affect the rate and direction of tree species turnover during rainforest recovery. Such knowledge can inform active forest regeneration efforts. It may also advance our understanding of the mechanisms shaping patterns of biodiversity.
Fellowship dates: August 2023 - August 2025
Phoebe Mankiewicz Ledins, Ph.D.
Cluster 5 – Linking the built environment, greenspace, energy, climate, and health
Research description: Phoebe’s research focuses on designing, prototyping, and testing building-integrated systems that pull air through plants and root-associated microbial ecosystems. Her research aims to demonstrate how such systems might benefit urban carbon footprints and human health outcomes by reducing pollutant exposures, diversifying local microbiomes, and providing opportunities for urban agriculture.
Fellowship dates: July 2024 - June 2026
Tian Ma, Ph.D.
Cluster 5 – Linking the built environment, greenspace, energy, climate, and health
Research description: Tian’s research focuses on vector-borne diseases, spatial epidemiology, climate change, and infectious diseases modelling, with a particular emphasis on mapping spatial-temporal patterns of infectious diseases, identifying driving factors behind them, and exploring the spatiotemporal variation of infectious diseases in response to global changes.
Fellowship dates: October 2024 - September 2026
