Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  University of California - Davis

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  BROADLY, I STUDY PLANT COMMUNITIES AND HOW TO RESTORE THEM AFTER HUMANS DAMGAE THE ENVIRONMENT. I TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY A PLANTS GROW WHERE IT DOES, SO WE CAN USE THAT INFORMATION TO HELP plan where and how to reestablish plants. FOR EXAMPLE, RIGHT NOW I study where to plant forest trees in the California mountains after wildfires. I consider how a bunch of things affect planting success: sunlight, steepness, soil quality, rainfall, shade from shrubs, how many years after a fire, and many more. Using all these characteristics, we can predict where trees have the best chance of surviving and regenerating the forest.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  Plants can learn! Sensitive briar closes its leaves when it is touched to avoid being eaten, but if a human plays a trick on them and touches them a bunch of times, it can learn not to be fooled by them.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  90% of it!! Some of my favorites things is going outside a lot to collect data. I love being outside. I also love the sense of discovery I feel when I finally have all my data and can show a little piece of how nature works. There are always surprises, and I love them too. When I do make discoveries, I love the feeling that I know something about how nature works that nobody else knows yet (even if it is small), and then I quickly want to share it with everyone and say, "look, this really is cool!".

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  Once, we had a port-a-potty chained down on the top of a large hill at my field site. One day, we had 85 mph Santa Ana winds, and they were strong enough to pull up the stakes holding the potty, lift it off the ground, and fling it 40 ft across the flat top of the hill to where the hill got steep enough where it rolled 400 ft down to the bottom of the hill. When we drove up the next day, we didn't notice that the port-a-potty was gone right away, but when someone needed it, we were all bamboozled. "Where did the porta-a-potty go?" That's when we looked down the other side of the hill. Sure enough, there it was, hundreds of feet down the hill peacefully laying on its side.

  
  
• In addition to English, I am comfortable communicating with students in the following languages:

  (not set)

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2