Postdoctoral Researchers

Rachel Havranek
Postdoctoral Fellow
Advisor: Jessica Stanley and Elizabeth Cassel

I am a low temperature geochemist, and I love to work both in modern soils and paleosols in the geologic record. I am currently an NSF—EAR Postdoctoral Fellow working with Jessica Stanley and Elizabeth Cassel on a project based in the Paso del Sapo Basin, Argentina. We are using a combination of low temperature thermochronology, stable isotope geochemistry, and landscape evolution modeling to learn more about the complex interplay of climate and tectonics during the Miocene epoch in the Andes.

Zhuoya He
Postdoctoral Fellow
Advisor: Erika Rader, Ph.D.

I am passionate about geoscience educational research, particularly focused on promoting diversity and inclusion in learning. Additionally, I research on global and regional sea level patterns driven by mass changes in ice sheets and glaciers.

Li Huang
Postdoctoral Fellow
Advisor: Dr. Alistair Smith

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the i-CREWS project funded by Idaho NSF EPSCoR. My research focuses on geospatial analysis and modeling of human-environmental interactions and their landscape, hydrological, and socio-ecological impacts. I am also interested physiology-based modeling of fire-induced tree mortality and recovery.

Lucas Bernardelli Hoeltgebaum
Postdoctoral Fellow
Advisor: Meng Zhao

I am an environmental engineer and I'm conducting a study on groundwater and evapotranspiration modelling in the Ecohydrology group led by Meng Zhao. I'm enthusiastic about hydrological modelling, environmental data analysis, field work measurements, and science communication. I enjoy diving into challenging simulations and coding and continuously learning from environmental data. Outside of research, I'm passionate about finding creative ways to share scientific knowledge and appreciating the nature.