People
Lab Director
Hometown: Berkeley, California
Education: Ph.D. (1987) Geography - University of Colorado, Boulder.
M.Sc. (1979) Geography - Oregon State University, Corvallis. B.Sc. (1977)
Geography - California State University, Hayward.
Phd Student
Hometown:
Education: M.Sc. (2006) Geography - Kansas State University, Manhattan.
B.Sc. (2003) Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN.
Full-time Research Technician
Where I hail from: Born in Frontroyal VA, raised in New Cumberland
PA
Education: B.A. Biology, Chemistry Minor, Botany Concentration
Degree pursuing: Plant Pathology
Personal: Beer making, Becoming a Brewmaster of Carr Brewing Company,
the usual hiking, biking (for speed), canoeing, camping, gardening, plant
and bird identifying/watching, State College Area High School Assistant
Wrestling Coach
Projects: Fire-climate Interactions in
the Mediterranean Climate Areas of the Pacific Coast with Valerie
Trouet and Fire History in Diamond Mountains, Lassen
National Forest with Lisa Gill
Masters Student
Born: Alberta, Canada, but raised in Arizona and Colorado
Education: B.A. (2005) Geography - University of Colorado, Boulder
M.Sc. student: Spatial and Temporal Variation of Fire Regimes in the
Diamond Mountains, Lassen National Forest, California.
Interests: Fire Ecology, Biogeography, and Resource Management .
Hobbies: Dreaming of being a Park Ranger at Eldorado Canyon State Park
in Colorado, Addicted to Hiking, Traveling, and Law & Order SVU.
Research: Fire History in Diamond Mountains, Lassen
National Forest
Masters Student
Hometown: I’m originally from Downingtown, PA. That’s in the suburbs
of Philadelphia.
I completed high school at Downingtown Area High School in 1998 as
the Valedictorian of my class. I went to Dartmouth College that
fall where I graduated in June, 2002 having earned a degree in Math with
a minor in Sociology. For the next few years, I took a number of
temporary and seasonal jobs that allowed me to see the country and travel.
I worked and lived in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California.
After a short-lived failure of a stint at the London School of Economics
in the fall of 2003, I traveled to Madagascar for a month and explored
the southwest region of the country (which, coincidentally, looks a lot
like San Diego, just, without the cities). I joined the Penn State
Department of Geography in the fall of 2005 as a MS student under the
guidance of El Jefe – Dr. Alan Taylor. I expect to finish
my degree by the end of the academic year 2006-07 and move on into a PhD
here at Penn State.
Research: Stand Dynamics of Aspen, Lassen
National Forest
Phd Student
Hometown: Cleveland, OH.
Education: M.Sc. (1999) Geography - Penn State University "The Structure
and dynamics of an old-growth red fir (Abies magnifica A. Murr)
& western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl Ex D. Don) forest
in the Carson range, Nevada, USA". B.Sc. (1995) Biology - Baldwin-Wallace
College. B.A. (1995) Political Science - Baldwin-Wallace College.
Phd. Candidate Identifying Reference Conditions for Prescribed Fire
Management of Mixed Conifer Forests in Yosemite National Park, California.
Hobbies: hiking, homebrewing
Research: Yosemite National Park Reference Conditions,
Red Fir Forest in Lake Tahoe Basin
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Valerie Trouet is a post-doctoral research associate at the Vegetation
Dynamics Lab. She studies interactions between climate, fire regimes,
and fire management in the Mediterranean climate areas of California,
Southern Oregon and Western Nevada. Her home country is Belgium, where
she obtained a MSc (Ghent University) and a PhD (Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven) in Bio-engineering (Land and Forest management). The topic of
her dissertation was tree ring analysis and remote sensing of Zambezian
miombo vegetation in southern Africa. Apart from being a tree ring nut
and a staunch supporter of evolution, she likes traveling and coffee drinking/people
watching.
Research: Fire-climate interactions in
the Mediterranean climate areas of the Pacific Coast
