BERKELEY - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Senior Data Scientist / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science

Brookie Guzder-Williams is an environmental data science researcher leveraging satellite imagery and neural networks to better understand stresses on the earth's natural resources. His research is focused on designing, training, analyzing and deploying novel neural network architectures for global scale computer vision tasks. He comes to the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment at Berkeley from World Resources Institute where he served as Director of Data Science. Brookie's background is theoretical physics. He was an International Postdoctoral Fellow for the National Science Foundation, has a Ph.D. in String Theory from the University of California Santa Barbara, and an undergraduate degree in both Physics and Mathematics from the University of Colorado.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor
• Faculty Advisor & Associate Professor

Carl Boettiger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. Carl works on problems in ecological forecasting and decision making under uncertainty, with applications for global change, conservation and natural resource management. Carl is particularly interested in how we can predict or manage ecological systems that may experience regime shifts: sudden and dramatic changes that challenge both our models and available data. The rapid expansion in both computational power and the available ecological and environmental data enables and requires new mathematical, statistical and computational approaches to these questions. Ecology has much to learn about what are and are not useful from advances in informatics & computer science, just as it has from statistics and mathematics. Traditional approaches to ecological modeling and resource management such as stochastic dynamic systems, Bayesian inference, and optimal control theory must be adapted both to take advantage of all available data while also dealing with its imperfections. Carl's approach blends ecological theory with the synthesis of heterogeneous data and the development of software-- a combination now recognized as data science. Carl is a co-founder of the rOpenSci project, a senior fellow at BIDS, and a science adviser to NCEAS, reflecting his interests in open science, data science, and ecoinformatics.

Job Titles:

• Scientist

Job Titles:

• Senior Program Manager / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science
• Senior Program Manager With the Eric

Ciera Martinez is a Senior Program Manager with the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE) who focuses on data intensive research projects that aim to understand how life on this planet evolves in reaction to the environment and climate - especially projects involving large and complex datasets. Ciera comes to DSE after serving as Biology and Environmental Sciences Lead for the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS). A long-time open science advocate, Ciera has been involved with and continues to be interested in working on training for open data, education, publishing, and software, including developing community standards for data management practices. As a 2019 Mozilla Open Science Fellow, she connected her love of data and museums and worked on projects aimed at understanding and increasing the usability of biodiversity and natural history museum data. She received her PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, researching the genetic mechanisms regulating plant architecture. She then went on to become a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, studying genome evolution.

Job Titles:

• Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Poli
• Faculty Director & Associate Professor

Douglas McCauley is an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley and an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara. Doug is an ecologist and conservation biologist that uses a diverse suite of methods to better understand how nature works and to create new applied research tools to better manage and conserve biodiversity. His research often involves leveraging the power of new technologies and insight from data science to address complex environmental problems and bring together the diverse stakeholders needed to effectively implement these solutions. Doug leads the Benioff Ocean Initiative at UC Santa Barbara. He was named a Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences and he serves on the World Economic Forum's Friends of Ocean Action leadership team.

Eric Schmidt led Google as CEO for a decade and as executive chairman for four years. He also served as executive chairman of Alphabet for three years and as technical advisor. A journalist early in her career, Wendy Schmidt also worked in marketing communications in Silicon Valley and since 2006 has led the couple's philanthropy as president of the Schmidt Family Foundation and Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Job Titles:

• Associate Professor in Statistics at UC
• Faculty Director & Associate Professor

Fernando Pérez is an Associate Professor in Statistics at UC Berkeley and scientist at LBNL. He builds open source tools for humans to use computers as companions in thinking and collaboration, mostly in the scientific Python ecosystem (IPython, Jupyter & friends). A computational physicist by training, his research interests include questions at the nexus of software and geoscience, seeking to build the computational and data ecosystem to tackle problems like climate change with collaborative, open, reproducible, and extensible scientific practices. He is a co-founder of Project Jupyter, the 2i2c.org initiative, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and the NumFOCUS Foundation. He is a recipient of the 2017 ACM Software System Award and the 2012 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software.

Job Titles:

• Data Scientist / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science

Giulia worked with DSE as a Data Scientist passionate about interrogating data in search of both meaningful questions and actionable answers. The topics of sustainability and environmental problem-solving have always challenged and motivated her at a personal level: she brings to DSE her interdisciplinary experience in data science, optimization and machine learning, and a continuous desire to pair her scientific background with making a positive impact. Giulia most recently served UN Global Pulse as a Data Science Research Fellow, after working as an AI Scientist at the Vector Institute. Before that, she completed a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at Polytechnique Montréal as part of the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Data Science for real-time Decision-Making.

Job Titles:

• Professor in the EECS Department at UC

Joseph is a Professor in the EECS department at UC Berkeley, a co-director and founding member of the UC Berkeley RISE Lab and a member of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR Group).

Job Titles:

• Faculty Advisor & Professor
• G.R. & W.M. Goertz Professor

Justin Brashares is the G.R. & W.M. Goertz Professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Justin's research combines approaches from ecology with interdisciplinary environmental science to better understand how human activities are impacting biodiversity, and to highlight and communicate the everyday consequences of these changes for society. Work in Justin's group extends traditional environmental science to consider the economic, political and cultural factors that drive and, in turn, are driven by global change. Through these efforts, Justin and his group at Berkeley strive to propose empirically-based, action-oriented strategies for the conservation of ecosystems and the services they provide us.

Job Titles:

• Executive Director
• Executive Director / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science
• Executive Director for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science

Kevin Koy is Executive Director for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment at Berkeley (DSE) where he works to enable the Center's mission to develop impactful computational solutions to the challenges facing our environment. He brings more than two decades of experience working in environmental science, data science, and human-centered design with the goal of providing people with the best environments and approaches to take on complex challenges. Kevin comes to the Schmidt Center for DSE from the global design and innovation firm, IDEO, where he served as Senior Director working to develop a data-enabled design practice. Previously, he was the founding Executive Director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), Managing Director of Stanford University's Data Science and AI Affiliates Programs, Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF), and Geospatial/Remote Sensing Specialist for the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity & Conservation and the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Biology Institute.

Job Titles:

• Data Scientist / Research Software Engineer / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science

Magali de Bruyn is a Data Scientist / Research Software Engineer for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment at UC Berkeley (DSE). Magali applies computer science to drive systemic change towards greater environmental sustainability. She is particularly interested in forest monitoring and involving community engagement, policy, and complexity science. She has experience tackling environmental and data challenges in-person in 6 countries across the world (notably in India, Belgium, and the US). Previously, Magali applied web scraping, data science, and natural language processing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to research sustainable urbanization and environmental economics. Magali graduated with a degree in Computer Science and a concentration in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from Minerva University and is an alumna of the United World Colleges (UWC). In addition to English, she knows French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Hindi.

Job Titles:

• Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist

Maggi Kelly is Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and an expert in spatial data science. She has dedicated her career to redefining the boundaries of mapping-technology and its application to understanding dynamic landscapes. She has applied her technological expertise to crucial problems across the state, such as understanding and documenting wildfires, tracking and predicting forest diseases, improving agriculture and water usage, and climate change. She is faculty director of the Geospatial Innovation Facility and Director of the ANR Statewide Program in Informatics and Geographic Information Systems (IGIS).

Job Titles:

• Senior Program Manager / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science

Maya Weltman-Fahs joins the inaugural staff of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment at Berkeley (DSE) as a Senior Program Manager. In this role, Maya collaborates with the team to define the mission and focus the research program for the Center, calling upon her diverse interdisciplinary background and her experience in both industry and academia. Maya's academic background spans several institutions and disciplines. She carries degrees in Sustainable Agriculture and Agroecology (UC Santa Cruz), Climate Science and Policy (Columbia University), and Natural Resources (Cornell University). She served as a lecturer at Macaulay Honors College (City University of New York) and Santa Clara University, supporting young scholars in GIS, Applied Ecology, and the Scientific Process. Most recently Maya was in the industrial space, as a Strategic Map Planning Manager for the autonomous vehicle startup Nuro. Maya is thrilled to support the DSE in creating environmental solutions that have a real impact!

Job Titles:

• Data Scientist / Research Software Engineer / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science
• Data Scientist / Research Software Engineer at the Eric

Nick Gondek is a Data Scientist / Research Software Engineer at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE). He is dedicated to creating simple and scalable data infrastructure to address complex challenges in our changing environment, particularly within conservation biology, agriculture, and social science. Nick brings diverse experience across DSE's focal areas of biodiversity and climate resilience. After starting his career catching songbirds for evolutionary biology research projects in Arizona and Hawaii, he worked with Conservation Metrics to develop machine learning tools to detect seabirds, bats, and elephants in acoustic recordings for wildlife managers and research groups worldwide. He later worked with sustainable ag startup Unfold to develop lettuce and tomato varieties for vertical farms and greenhouses, and most recently, with startup Blumen Systems to streamline the siting and permitting process for developers of clean energy infrastructure. Prior to joining DSE, Nick obtained a Master's degree in the Computational Analysis of Public Policy from The University of Chicago, with an emphasis on econometric, database design, and machine learning applications within social science. With the University of Minnesota, he earned dual BS degrees in (1) Fisheries, Wildlife Conservation Biology, and (2) Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management.

Job Titles:

• Professor

Paolo D'Odorico is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on the role of hydrological processes in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Through the analysis of the soil water balance he has highlighted important nonlinearities in the coupling between soil moisture dynamics and plant water stress, biogeochemical cycling, land-atmosphere interactions, plant community composition, and soil susceptibility to wind erosion. Using field observations and process-based models, Paolo is investigating new mechanisms of desertification and factors contributing to the resilience of the desert margins. His group's work has highlighted the role played by positive feedbacks with the physical environment on the resilience of savannas, dry tropical forests, desert shurblands, freshwater wetlands, mangrove swamps, and seagrass meadows. His work has also shown how environmental noise may increase the complexity of ecosystem dynamics by inducing new states, bifurcations, or pattern formation. Paolo is currently investigating the globalization of water through virtual water trade and international land investments, and its impact on water equity, societal resilience, environmental stewardship, and food security.

Job Titles:

• Senior Research Data Scientist / Software Engineer / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science
• Senior Research Data Scientist / Software Engineer at the Eric

Sam Pottinger is a Senior Research Data Scientist / Software Engineer at the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE). He is interested in creating digital spaces that foster collaboration and enable thinking within complex problems. This work often involves crafting digital tools at the intersection of participatory design, artificial intelligence, information design (data visualization), software engineering, and game design. Sam has worked for small organizations including LabJack (DAQ / IoT) and Plenty (agriculture) as well as larger companies suchas IDEO, Google, and Apple. He was most recently the Director of Data and Digital Technologies at the synthetic biology sustainable food startup EVERY. In addition to industry, he is a contributor to the open source Processing project where he previously helped the community reach its fourth major version and still provides ongoing work on language engineering. Other open source contributions available on his GitHub.

Job Titles:

• Associate Dean for the Faculty and Research & Professor / College of Computing
• Professor and Chair

Sandrine Dudoit is Professor and Chair of the Department of Statistics and Professor in the Division of Biostatistics, School of Public, at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Dudoit's methodological research interests regard high-dimensional inference and include exploratory data analysis (EDA), visualization, loss-based estimation with cross-validation (e.g., density estimation, classification, regression, model selection), and multiple hypothesis testing. Much of her methodological work is motivated by statistical inference questions arising in biological research and, in particular, the design and analysis of high-throughput microarray and sequencing gene expression experiments, e.g., single-cell transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) for discovering novel cell types and for the study of stem cell differentiation. Her contributions include: exploratory data analysis, normalization and expression quantitation, differential expression analysis, class discovery, prediction, inference of cell lineages, integration of biological annotation metadata (e.g., Gene Ontology (GO) annotation). She is also interested in statistical computing and, in particular, reproducible research. She is a founding core developer of the Bioconductor Project (http://www.bioconductor.org), an open-source and open-development software project for the analysis of biomedical and genomic data. Professor Dudoit is a co-author of the book Multiple Testing Procedures with Applications to Genomics and a co-editor of the book Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Solutions Using R and Bioconductor. She is Associate Editor of three journals, including The Annals of Applied Statistics and IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. Professor Dudoit was named Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2010, Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute in 2014, and Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2021. Professor Dudoit obtained a Bachelor's degree (1992) and a Master's degree (1994) in Mathematics from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She first came to UC Berkeley as a graduate student and earned a PhD degree in 1999 from the Department of Statistics. Her doctoral research, under the supervision of Professor Terence P. Speed, concerned the linkage analysis of complex human traits. From 1999 to 2000, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley. Before joining the Faculty at UC Berkeley in July 2001, she underwent two years of postdoctoral training in genomics in the laboratory of Professor Patrick O. Brown, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University. Her work in the Brown Lab involved the development and application of statistical methods and software for the analysis of microarray gene expression data.

Job Titles:

• Administrative Manager / Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science
• Administrative Manager for the Schmidt Center for DSE

Stacey Dorton is the Administrative Manager for the Schmidt Center for DSE, serving as our Office Jedi. She is an administrative professional with 25 years' experience in office management. She has done administrative work for a wide variety of organizations, including an elementary school, psychiatric facility, waste management firm, and a catering company. She also has extensive experience in the event management and social media fields. She is a native of the Oakland/Berkeley area and a graduate of UC Berkeley (class of '95) majoring in women's studies. GO BEARS!

Eric and Wendy Schmidt have been active philanthropists since 2006, when they started the Schmidt Family Foundation to address challenges facing communities around the world, working for clean renewable energy, healthy food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights. They also founded Schmidt Ocean Institute to advance oceanographic research by offering access to the world's first year-round philanthropic research vessel in exchange for making their findings publicly available. In 2017, the couple founded Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative that invests in exceptional people making the world better and brings them together in interdisciplinary networks to solve problems in science and society.