Congratulations to all of our graduating students who will be sharing their research at GradFest 2024 & other seminars!
GradFest 2024 Environmental Science, Policy & Management PhD Graduating Speakers
Lucy Andrews
PhD Advisor: Ted Grantham
Talk Title: “Dreams of Dam Removal in a Time of Environmental Crisis.”
Lucy Andrews is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Grantham Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She studies environmental water management with an eye toward climate change mitigation and adaptation. She works predominantly on stream restoration, dam management and removal, and trade-off analysis, particularly in California. Many of her current methods are computational. Much of her research happens under the auspices of cooperative extension in order to be relevant and actionable.
Emily Chen
PhD Advisor: Stephanie Carlson
Talk Title: “Population dynamics of Chinook salmon in the Central Valley.”
Emily Chen is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Carlson Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She is a quantitative fisheries biologist interested in the conservation and management of populations. Her research involves using models to understand internal population dynamics, especially around diversity and population resilience. Her dissertation research evaluates differences between hatchery and wild salmon behavior and implications for fisheries management tools.
Pranjal Dwivedi
PhD Advisor: Celine Pallud
Topic: Wetland biogechemistry and greenhouse gas emissions in different geographies
Pranjal Dwivedi is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Pallud Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. His research is focused on soil biogeochemistry, soil carbon, land-use change, and redox chemistry.
Danielle Perryman
PhD Advisor: Steve Beissinger
Talk Title: “Small Mammal Niche Shifts and Morphological Response to Climate Change and Plant Productivity in the Mojave Desert Region of California.”
Danielle Perryman is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Beissinger Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley.
Mindy Jewell Price
PhD Advisors: Kathryn De Master
Talk Title: “Contested Icescapes: Land, Politics, and Change on an Arctic Agricultural Frontier in the Northwest Territories, Canada.”
Mindy Jewel Price is a finishing Ph.D. student in the De Master Group in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She is a political ecologist and rural sociologist studying agrarian change in northern Canada. Her dissertation research, based on on-going ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in the Northwest Territories, Canada, critically examines the circumpolar north as a new juridical and agrarian frontier. Her previous work examined gender inequities in livestock systems in East Africa and local food systems in the southeastern US.
Rachael Ryan
PhD Advisors: Stephanie Carlson and Ted Grantham
Talk Title: “Diversity and Resilience in Endangered Coho Salmon.”
Rachael Ryan is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Freshwater Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She is broadly interested in how human modification of freshwater systems restricts or enhances adaptive divergence of fish populations. Specifically, she explores the impacts of watershed modification and climatic variability on salmonids and their life history and behaviour, and applies this knowledge to conservation and management.
GradFest 2024 Master of Forestry Graduating Student Speakers
Connie Ryan
M.F. Advisor: Brandon Collins
Talk Title: “Describing Stand Density from Robust Historical Forest Inventories across the Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascades.”
Connie Ryan is a graduating Master of Forestry student in the Collins Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. Their research focuses on forest management, historical ecology, and pattern-process links.
ESPM Distinguished Lecture by a Finishing Graduate Student
Congratulations to the student who was nominated to give their finishing talk as part of the ESPM Spring 2024 Colloquium!
Leke Hutchins
PhD Advisor: Rosemary Gillespie
Leke Hutchins is a finishing Ph.D. student in the Gillespie Lab in the Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on conservation biology, agroecology, and Hawaiian food sovereignty.
Catch Leke’s finishing talk as the ESPM Distinguished Graduate Student Lecture on Thursday, April 25th at 3:30pm in 132 Mulford & Zoom
Environmental Science, Policy & Management Graduating Speakers
Congratulations to the all of the graduating students presenting their finishing talks this semester!
- April 17: Erin Westeen, 12:00pm in Grinnell-Miller Library (3101 VLSB) and Zoom. “Lessons from sky islands: ecomorphology and resource partitioning across levels of biological organization in spiny lizards.”
- April 19: Mitch Serota, 12:00pm in Mulford 36 and Zoom. “Pumas and penguins: how an unexpected interaction reshapes the ecology of coastal Patagonia.”
- April 19: Annie Taylor, 4:00pm in 306 Wellman and Zoom. “Mapping with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band: Supporting Indigenous ecological stewardship and cultural relationships with land using spatial data science.”
- April 25: Leke Hutchins, 3:30pm in Mulford 132 and Zoom. “Abundant Lands, Thriving People: Examining the Socio-Ecological Web of an Indigenous Agroecosystem.”
- April 26: Cole Rainey, 5:00pm in Mulford 132 and Zoom. “Soil as Threshold: To embody agroecological relationship at the edges of California agriculture.”
- May 1: GradFest – view full schedule on the official GradFest website
- May 3: Jessie Moravek, 12:00pm in Mulford 36 and Zoom. “Freshwater restoration in California: Exploring how floodplain reconnection, habitat restoration, and species reintroduction influence freshwater resources at a landscape scale.”
- May 10: Kyle Leathers, 11:00am in Mulford 36 and Zoom. “Drought effects on mountain streams.”
- May 10: Avery Shawler, 12:00pm in Mulford 36 and Zoom. “Ecological & social challenges of wolf-livestock conflict: wolf-elk interactions & local perspectives in the eastern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”
- May 14: Kenzo Esquivel, 1:00pm in Wellman 306 and Zoom. “Soil Health Management in the California Central Coast: Barriers and Opportunities for Enhanced Carbon Storage and Soil Multifunctionality on Working Farms.”