Researchers

My position will be making scientific and scholarly contributions to CHC’s research efforts, including the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), while helping to expand recognition of the Center’s achievements, data sets, and services within the professional and scientific community.

As a biogeomorphologist, Dr. Baxter is interested in understanding how plants and animals help shape landforms and landscapes. Dr. Baxter's previous research has explored biophysical processes on natural rock and artificial structures (including heritage assets) in coastal environments as well as the socio-cultural implications of these interactions and feedbacks. Currently, Dr. Baxter is working on a project led by Dr. Ian Walker (Geography, UCSB) and co-PI's Jenny Dugan (Marine Science Institute, UCSB), and Laura Engeman (UCSD, SIO) to study how coastal dune restoration could be used as a nature-based solution to enhance the resilience of California’s beaches to climate change.

Diyang Cui is a postdoc working with Dr. Amy Frazier. She is involved in the NSF-funded project BioFI: Biodiversity Forecasting Initiative to Understand Population, Community and Ecosystem Function under Climate Change. She is interested in global change biology, conservation biogeography, and remote sensing. Her research involves using climate and species data and integrating geospatial analyses and modeling tools, to understand and predict biodiversity patterns and inform conservation under climate change.

I help connect research in GIScience and knowledge graphs with real-world applications in the KnowWhereGraph project.

Barnali works with satellite-derived biophysical parameters like Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) for crop yield prediction in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work also encompasses how these biophysical variables can predict crop disease and pest-like locusts' impact on crop yield.

The intersections of climate, food systems, food security, and human health.

Tuo (Tony) Feng is a postdoc scholar advised by Prof. Dar Roberts. He is broadly interested in integrating multi-sourced remote sensing dataset to analyze spatial-temporal patterns of forest ecosystem under the changing climate and disturbance regimes. He is currently involved in the Wildfire Resilience Initiative project, and working on multi-decadal fire risk assessments over the Southern California.

Chris develops data sets and analyses that help us cope with climate change and extremes.

Analysis of climate data, forecasts, and remotely sensed and modeled agroclimatic data to support early warning for food insecurity.

I am an analytic cartographer, with special interests in gazetteers, topographical and geological maps. What is the first thing people recognize on a map? Text. What kind of map downplays text the most? Geological.

Corbin Hodges is broadly interested in researching the causes of poverty and ways in which to sustainably improve human well-being and conducts his research in two distinct populations.

Analysis of precipitation, NDVI, and other agroclimatic indicators to identify food insecurity in developing countries.

I'm interested in understanding & modeling the behavioral correlates of pedestrian wayfinders based on their spatial familiarity.

My research combines remote sensing and field ecology to study how vegetation responds to disturbance and degradation at a landscape scale.

Famine Early Warning

Spatial Cognition, Blind Navigation Assistive Devises for Travel, Accessibility Parameters and Enhancements Multi-sensory Interfaces.

My research addresses forest and savanna ecosystem responses to and recovery from disturbances such as drought, wildfire, and long-term land use.

My research applies spatiotemporal methods to study demographic dynamics, with a focus on population decline, low fertility and migration trends

My training is in Remote Sensing, applied to fire science in chaparral. I've also looked at oil spills, thermal IR data, and currently I'm studying crop area of subsistence farms in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I study how the interactions of the biosphere and the climate shape the future of carbon, water, and energy in the Earth System.

I work in the field of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) for stormwater management (operations and practices) that protect, restore, or mimic the natural water cycle.

Shrad is a large-scale hydrologist with expertise in drought monitoring, and seasonal scale climate and drought forecasting. His research focuses on improving drought monitoring and early warning capabilities.

I research how our interpretation of school discipline experiences shifts our understanding of inequality in schools

Quantitative, participatory research investigating knowledge systems in small scale agriculture, and collaboration with formal science.

I study species conservation and human-wildlife relations using remote sensing, GIS, and statistical modeling.