People

	LEAD PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR Alessandro Ossola - Assistant Professor & Assistant Agronomist in the AES Dr Ossola is a first-generation ecologist and environmental scientist who specializes in urban and peri-urban areas. He is also a former Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and is a former US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine NRC Associate within the National Risk Management Research Laboratory of US-EPA in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr Ossola is a recipient of a 2022 New Innovator Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). His research encompasses several topics including ecology, forestry, water management, food production, planning and design. Over the years, he enjoyed the opportunity to lecture for undergraduate and postgraduate subjects related to urban green infrastructures, urban biodiversity conservation, urban horticulture, eco-hydrology, landscape architecture, urban planning and design. Alessandro is particularly interested in the applied side of his research which spans environmental management, ecological design, science communication and outreach. Alessandro is the Chair of the Saratoga Horticultural Research Endowment (SHRE) and Member of the Executive Oversight Team of the Los Angeles Center for Urban Natural Resources Sustainability. He further advises many local, state, regional and federal government agencies on a number of issues and policies related to urban land management, planning and governance.
	CURRENT STUDENTS AND STAFF
	Dr Pooja Singh, Postdoc Dr Singh has research experience in forest ecology, species distribution modelling, environmental extremes, LULC mapping, spatio-temporal modelling using remote sensing and machine learning (ML) approaches, to soil moisture retrieval using multi-sensor satellite data. She received a PhD from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing and Forest Research Institute, India. Dr Singh doctoral research focused on the vulnerability assessment of mountain ecosystem by investigating the impact of projected atmospheric scenarios and LULC changes on species' bioclimatic niche & assemblages in western Himalaya. Before joining UC Davis, she worked as a research associate at the Division of Agricultural Physics, IARI, New Delhi on regional soil moisture mapping in semi-arid and arid zones using a variety of high-resolution satellite data - SAR (Sentinel-1), thermal (Landsat 8), optical (Sentinel-2), semi empirical and ML based modelling approaches.
	Dr Moreen Willaredt, Postdoc Dr. Willaredt explores the impact of impervious surfaces on urban tree water supply and growth. She was awarded the Walter Benjamin Fellowship by the German Research Foundation to conduct her research at the Urban Science Lab. Her research in urban environments focuses on soils and their hydrological properties and functions. She holds a Master's in Urban Ecosystem Science (Technische Universität Berlin) and received a PhD from the Institute of Ecology of Technische Universität Berlin in Germany. Her PhD project as a fellow of the Berlin International Graduate School on Model and Simulation-based Research (BIMoS) focused on modelling the water retention characteristics in constructed Technosols.
	Dr Elizeth Cinto Mejía, postdoc Dr Cinto Mejía is a postdoc with Meineke and Lubell Labs investigating tree growth patterns in relation to urban islands and water availability in Sacramento, New Orleans and Raleigh. Elizeth completed her bachelor's degree in biology from Universidad de Navarra, MS in biology from Boise State University, and doctoral degree in Entomology from Michigan State University. Her past research includes bird, plant, and insect ecology. Through her career she has done extensive outreach and education work in Idaho and Michigan mostly working with K-12 classrooms. This project is supported by a grant from USDA-NIFA.
	Dr Jacob Cecala, postdoc Dr Cecala is a postdoc working on an ORISE-funded project investigating adaptation and mitigation issues in California urban forestry. The project is a collaboration between the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. Prior to this position, Dr Cecala completed a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Entomology & Nematology Department at UC Davis. He received his PhD in Entomology from UC Riverside in 2021, in which he investigated ecological interactions between ornamental plants and wild bee species in commercial plant nurseries across southern California.
	Dr Luisa Fernanda Velásquez Camacho, postdoc Dr Velásquez Camacho is a postdoc working on a USDA-FS-funded projected aimed at assessing tree cooling benefits across California's K-12 schoolyards. This project is a collaboration between USDA-FS, UCLA, UC Berkley, and Green Schoolyards America. Dr Velásquez Camacho holds a BSc in Forestry Engineering at the District University in Bogotá, Colombia, a MSc in Data Science applied to Forestry from the University of Valladolid, Spain and a PhD in Forest Management from the University of Lleida. Her PhD research focused on the automation of urban tree mapping, analyzing their distribution patterns in cities, and the assessment of ecosystem services using deep learning techniques and multiple remote sensing data sources. Luisa has extensive experience in urban forestry, remote sensing, modeling, spatiotemporal analysis, and artificial intelligence.

	Katarina Elena Rodriguez Michel (Katie), PhD Student (GGG) Katie is a second year PhD student interested in ecological adaptation and how urban areas might serve as biodiversity refugia. Katie holds a MSc in Environmental Science and Management from UC Davis with specializations in Statistics & Data Analysis and Urban & Regional Planning and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science. In conducting her research she has worked with the California Department of Insurance, the Ocean Science Trust, and the California Native Plant Society.
	Jared Sisneroz, PhD Student (GGG) - Co-advised with Dr Haven Kiers Jared is a first year PhD student in the Geography Graduate Group. He has a bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis. After graduating in 2010, Jared worked as researcher on projects related to greenhouse and nursery crops, residential urban runoff, and outreach to structural pest controllers. His key focus was managing the UC Landscape Plant Irrigation Trials, a long-term project endeavoring to identify low water-use landscape plants for California’s Central Valley. Jared is interested in how plants fit into larger conversations around water-use, and human wellbeing in urban environments.
	Dewansh Matharoo, Saurabh Kataria, MSc students (EPM).
	Alden Hughes, Tyler Wakabayashi, Phoebe Elliott, Kaylianne Jordan, SriLasya Nalla, Forest Sabath, Undergraduate Researchers.
	Dr "Shifu" (Science Hyper-Intelligent Fabulous Unit) is our new lab supercomputer that enables our lab to leverage the capabilities of UCD's HPC Core Facility and the CAES FARM Cluster (https://hpc.ucdavis.edu/). Dr Shifu - powered by 12 Cores and 256 GB RAM - helps us with a number of big data analyses, model fitting, predictions and much more! Photo Credit @Google Generative AI, 2023.


	PAST STUDENTS, STAFF and STUDENT COLLABORATORS
	Dr Mengran Yu (Clare) - postdoc with Macquarie University, now University of Sydney, Australia. Dr Ariningsun Cinantya (Tya) - PhD student co-supervised with D/Prof Leishman, Macquarie University Sydney. Dr Sourav Das (Rony) - PhD student co-supervised with A/Prof Beaumont, Macquarie University Sydney. Now Research Scientist at the Natural Resources Canada. Dr Danelia Robinson, PhD student Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Now in environmental consulting. Dr Heather Stevens, PhD student collaborator now at Newcastle city council. Dr Thami Croeser, PhD student collaborator (RMIT, Australia). Dr Diana Backes, PhD student collaborator (Western Sydney University, Australia). Katarina Elena Rodriguez Michel (Katie), MSc student (EPM 2023), now PhD student in geography (UCD GGG). Becky Haworth, MSc student (EPM), now at CalRecycle. Ruchika Jaiswal, MSc student (EPM), now Community Nutrition Educator at UC ANR in Alameda County. Zerin Alam, MSc student (EPM), now Engineer at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). Alex Berk, MSc student (EPM). Now Water Resource Control Engineer at Office of the Delta Watermaster. Mia Bell, MSc student (UCD EPM 2023), now in environmental consulting. Sarah Roy, MSc student (UCD EPM 2023), now in environmental consulting. Grant Johnson, MSc student (UCD GGHA 2023), now Assistant CE Urban Agriculture Technology Area Advisor, South Coast Research and Extension Center, Irvine, CA. George Lloyd, MSc student collaborator (University of Sheffield, UK). Melchior Bizot-Espiard, Fanny Debourdeau - Visiting MSc students from AgroParisTech, France. Natalia Bugarin, Undergraduate Researcher. Now Peace Corps, Costa Rica. Sophia Thompson, BSc in Computer Science. Now graduate student UCI. Madison Burns, Undergraduate Researcher, BSc in Landscape Architecture. Now Landscape Architect. Priscilla Maldonado, Undergraduate Researcher, BSc in Landscape Architecture 2026. Kelly Graziadei, BSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems and 2022 McNair Scholar. Now graduate student at Sac State. Ali Kochems, BSc in Plant Sciences 2026. Selina Kosak, BSc student now MSc student at Macquarie University Sydney.
	YOU Interested in what we do? Please get in touch for upcoming positions, scholarships, fellowships and visiting experiences in our lab. We are part of UCD's Geography Graduate Group (MSc and PhD programs), the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group (MSc and PhD programs), the Environmental Policy and Management Graduate Group (MSc program), and the Graduate Group in Ecology (MSc and PhD programs). Student recruitment for MSc and PhD programs are generally open in Nov-Dec with a start in the fall quarter the following year. Please check out the UCD Graduate Studies website to find suitable Fellowships and Grants https://gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/financial-support. The Department of Plant Sciences offers ~10 Graduate Student Research Assistantship (GSR) Awards each year (deadline mid March). We strongly support candidate applications to a range of pre- and post-doctoral fellowships including but not limited to AAUW's American Fellowships, NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships, Fulbright Postdoctoral/Early Career Grants, Graduate Women in Science Fellowships, Ford Foundation Fellowships, the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and many more. A range of pre- and post-doctoral fellowships and programs are also available to international applicants including: AAUW's International Fellowships, Fulbright's Foreign Student Program, Fulbright's Visiting Scholar and Scholar in Residence programs, Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships (Canada), Faculty for the Future PhD Awards, Marie Skłodowska-Curie International postdocs, Schrodinger Fellowship, Walter Benjamin Programme and the Fulbright U.S.–ASEAN Visiting Scholar Initiative. Postdoctoral and mid-career fellowships for urban science scholars are also available through the Urban Studies Foundation.