Giovani Graziosi      Jesse Lasky      Ming Lee      Melissa Mark      Pinki Mondal      Carla Staver

Giovani Graziosi   Postdoctoral Research Scientist Columbia University, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027-5557 Email: gg2474@columbia.edu My current research focuses on assessing the interrelations that exist between forest fires, regrowth and global environmental sustainability. Please see biosketch and CV HERE for more information.       Jesse Lasky   Research Fellow Columbia University, Earth Institute 2910 Broadway New York NY 10025 Email: jl3985@columbia.edu I just received my PhD in Ecology & Evolution at the University of Texas at Austin, having previously received my AB at Kenyon College. My dissertation focused on understanding processes controlling biodiversity and ecosystem services of forests, with a focus on spatial issues and habitat fragmentation in tropical landscapes. I am broadly interested in the drivers of spatial variation in biodiversity and ecosystem services. As an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Fellow I will be working under direction of Maria Uriarte. I will study how climatic variation affects forest dynamics in Puerto Rico, with a goal of risk assessment and improved mitigation for tree biodiversity and carbon storage. Finally, I am also interested in genomic applications for natural resources conservation in the face of climate change. Please see CV HERE for more information. Or Jesse's site here.   top of page   Ming Lee   Research Fellow Earth Institute 2910 Broadway New York NY 10025 USA Phone: 212-854-3830 Fax: 212-854-8188 Email: tl2504@columbia.edu Growing up in a small and highly urbanized island state ( Singapore), my contact with nature is limited. But owing to my strong passion for natural history, perseverance and some luck, I have since ventured repeatedly into the nearby tropical forests in southeast Asia, where biodiversity is exceptionally rich. Unfortunately, these are also the places where I witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts humans have on our environment, most of which are tied to fueling the economic growth locally and beyond. It is clear to me that reducing the impacts of social drivers such as urbanization, economic development, and militarization will be vital in mitigating our biodiversity crisis. The significance of conserving nature, in part for its aesthetic value and the ecosystem services it provides for future generations, against the backdrop of diverse human threats is what motivates me to be a conservation scientist. My research program centers on understanding the proximate and ultimate drivers of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. In the last decade, I have examined topics ranging from assessing the correlates of local and global species extinction risks, addressing the impacts of past and future global land-use and climate change on biodiversity and protected areas, to evaluating the effects of attitudes and behaviors on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services across multiple scales. With globalization, the rapid rise of the emerging Asian economies, particularly China and India, and expansion of affluent consumers, the next conservation frontier will undeniably shift to Asia. My long-term research goal is to develop an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to unravel the underlying social drivers of global conservation issues to inform conservation policies and to optimize conservation efforts, particularly in Asia where it may matter the most in the following decades.         Melissa Mark   Research Fellow Columbia University, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology 851 Schermerhorn Ext. 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027-5557 Phone: 212-854-5330 Fax: 212-854-8188 Email: mm3523@columbia.edu My current research focuses on the costs of nest parasitism by the striped cuckoo (Tapera naevia) on the rufous-and-white wren (Thryothorus rufalbus) in a coffee agroforestry landscape. I am working with Dr. Dustin Rubenstein to measure the effects of living in modified habitats and raising cuckoo chicks on stress and immune function. This work is an extension of the doctoral thesis work, where I found high levels of parasitism in shade coffee, as well as overall low reproductive success for this wren. My research focused on individual behaviors of habitat selection and the effects of that selection on demography; my primary interests are on individual decision making in, and adaptation to, human-modified landscapes. I am also concerned with the conservation of biodiversity in rural areas in Latin America, and the use of ecological principles to direct or influence development in these areas.   top of page   Pinki Mondal   Postdoctoral Research Scientist Columbia University, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology Schermerhorn Ext. 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027-5557 Fax: 212-854-8188 Email: pm2658@columbia.edu Research Interests: As a land change scientist my research interest revolves around examining the relationships between biophysical and socio-economic variables and how these variables contribute towards global environmental change. I am particularly interested in human-environment interaction, land-cover and land-use change, agricultural sensitivity, and climate variability. Academic Background: I joined Dr. Ruth DeFries at Columbia University as a postdoctoral research scientist in 2012, prior to which I worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. I obtained my Ph.D. in Environmental Geography from the University of Florida (2011). I have a master's in Applied Geology from Jadavpur University, India (2004), and a B.S. in Geology from the University of Calcutta, India (2002). Selected Publications (for an extended list refer to Pinki's CV): Mondal, P., Nagendra, H. 2011. Trends of forest dynamics in tiger landscapes across Asia. Environmental Management. 48 (4), 781-794. Mondal, P. 2011. Quantifying surface gradients with a 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2). Ecological Indicators. 11 (3), 918-924. Mondal, P., Southworth, J. 2010. Evaluation of conservation interventions using a cellular automata-Markov model. Forest Ecology and Management. 260 (10), 1716-1725. Mondal, P., Southworth, J. 2010. Protection vs. Commercial management: spatial and temporal analysis of land cover changes in the tropical forests of Central India. Forest Ecology and Management 259 (5), 1009 -1017. Please see CV HERE for more information..   top of page   Carla Staver   Columbia Prize Postdoctoral Fellow Columbia University, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology Schermerhorn 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027-5557 Email: acs2003@columbia.edu I am interested in the roles of top-down versus bottom-up drivers in the ecology of savanna and forest systems, with an emphasis on interactions between climate, fire, and herbivory and their feedbacks with tree cover. This includes considering dynamics on multiple time and spatial scales. My research has spanned the fields of remote sensing, theoretical ecology, biogeochemistry, dendrochronology and community ecology. Please see Carla's recent website for more information www.columbia.edu/~acs2003 ’        top of page