LANDSCAPE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Student in the Trophic Ecology Lab / Co - Funded by the Wetland Landscape Ecology Lab
Christina Marconi is interested in using molecular techniques to explore marine biodiversity and trophic interactions. She joined UTMSI in April 2022 as a PhD student in Marine Science. Before joining UTMSI, Christina worked at the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve as a research scientist in the Stewardship sector. She earned her Master's in Marine Conservation from the University of Miami in 2018 and a B.S. in Natural Resources with a concentration in Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation from the University of Connecticut in 2016. Christina is currently working with the O'Connell Wetland Landscape Ecology Lab on a project to create open-source algorithms that map coastal wetlands in South Texas. These should help to evaluate habitat change over time and inform decision-making.
Dr. Saket Gowravaram is interested in tackling exciting earth science problems using advanced remote sensing and data analysis. He joined the O'Connell Lab at UT Austin Marine Science Institute February 2022 to study wetland ecosystems through multi-scale remote sensing data from satellites and UAS. Before joining UTMSI, he earned his PhD from the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of Kansas, where he mainly focused on UAS multispectral remote sensing for the mapping and measurement of environmental processes and natural disasters with an emphasis on UAS and satellite data fusion. During his PhD, he designed, developed, and demonstrated several UAS remote sensing missions in wildland fires, post-disaster damage assessment, and vegetation monitoring scenarios. Having made important contributions to the UAS remote sensing and grassland ecosystem community, he now aims to benefit the wetland ecosystem community through his research and associated findings.
Jessica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is centered on landscape ecology and relies on interdisciplinary methods that span the fields of ecology, remote sensing, geospatial informatics, and data science. Her goals are to create research products that facilitate landscape-scale ecosystem conservation. Jessica is a proponent of the open-science philosophy and strives to conduct research that reduces the barriers to accessing scientific results and products. She is also a proponent of long-term ecological research and serves as a Co-PI on the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Project (GCE-LTER).
Job Titles:
- Student / University of Texas McNair Fellow
Kody Barone is interested in the effects of climate change on marine ecosystem dynamics and carbon sequestration. He joined UTMSI in August of 2022 as a Master's student in Marine Science. He recently earned his B.S. degree in Environmental Science from The University of Texas at Austin in 2022 where he worked on a capstone project about the response of Texas mangroves to intense freeze events. Kody is excited to join the O'Connell Wetland Landscape Ecology Lab to learn more about the importance of wetland protection and how to mitigate climate change impacts.
Megan Podolinsky is interested in ecosystem dynamics across landscapes, especially restored wetlands and how different land use practices can potentially mitigate the effects of climate change. She joined UTMSI in June 2022 as a Master's student in Marine Science. Prior to joining the O'Connell Wetland Landscape Ecology Lab, Megan worked for over a decade for various government agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the National Park Service, as well as in the private sector, on wetland delineations and permitting for a small environmental consulting firm. She earned both a B.S. in Environmental Science and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana in 2012. Megan has been enjoying her summer field season sampling playa wetlands on Conservation Reserve Program land in western Kansas.
Job Titles:
- Fellow, NOAA Davidson Fellow
Kyle is interested in coastal resilience and in combating climate-change related stressors on wetlands. He joined UTMSI in January 2021 as a PhD student in Marine Science and studies landscape-scale wetland dynamics through remote sensing techniques. Prior to joining the O'Connell Wetland Landscape Ecology Lab, he researched the beneficial use of dredge material for the purpose of wetland restoration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and in his home state of Maryland, Kyle worked with the Chesapeake Bay Program in watershed-scale habitat restoration. He holds a M.S. degree in Marine Studies from the University of Delaware where his thesis research focused on understanding sediment transport in a recently restored tidal salt marsh and a B.S. degree in Environmental Science and Technology from the University of Maryland. Wetland research allows Kyle to combine his passions of nature and data science to promote ecosystem resilience.