As a member of the Western Fire & Forest Resilience Collaborative, Johan aims to improve our understanding of how forests are adapting to shifting wildfire activity in a rapidly changing climate. His current research efforts combine large, geographic field surveys of recent burns with FACE experiments across the western United States to assess forest vulnerability to ecosystem transitions under warming and rising atmospheric CO₂. A key focus of his work is investigating how soil microbial communities influence these post-fire dynamics.
Emilia is a PhD student at ERG. Her research focuses on grid planning to accelerate power system decarbonization by leveraging the existing system, such as reconductoring and surplus interconnection.
I'm interested in exploring the impacts and unintended consequences of climate policies across levels of government, with the goal of better understanding how to make informed policy decisions and incorporating community-led governance. I'd like to apply this knowledge to a variety of climate sectors, including vehicle miles traveled reduction and mitigation, short-lived climate pollutant reduction, plastic/waste reduction, and circular economies.
I finished sectioning the Tahoe Rim Trail last summer. It was a great excuse to go to the...
Sophie Pesek is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. She is interested in using causal inference and remote sensing techniques to support vulnerable communities in adapting to climate change.
I’m interested in using cutting-edge data to assess how environmental factors causally affect social and economic outcomes, teasing out important impact channels and mechanisms to assess how communities and individuals can adapt or respond.
I'm interested in the application of remote sensing to improve vegetation management, validate nature-based climate solutions, and managing and building out electrical infrastructure.
Mining Data on Reclaimed Coal Mines: a Machine Learning Approach to Assessing Habitat Suitability (MS ’18)
Hilary received her B.A. in Government and Biological Sciences, with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the latter, from Cornell University, where she graduated in 2015. At ERG, Hilary is interested in exploring the science-law nexus and the factors – political, economic, and social – that inform the translation of science into legislation. Her academic interests additionally include topics in sustainable development, climate change education, restoration...
Liyang is a PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group and a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley Lab. Her research interest is at the intersection of decision science, climate science, and infrastructure planning.
