Category: News

Libby Larson was selected as a finalist for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. She will be moving to Washington, DC, to work as a fellow in the Research and Analysis Program in the Earth Science Division at NASA. Congratulations Dr. Larson!

Daniele Spirandelli has accepted a position as Assistant Professor in Coastal Policy and Community Development, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawai`i. She will be moving to HI in July. Congratulations Daniele!

Stakeholders in the Scenarios for Snohomish Basin 2060 project met to discuss key challenges and opportunities for maintining ecosystem function in the long-term, developing a list of 10 directives for decision-making under uncertainty. Click here for more information.

December 2011: Marina Alberti participated in the Reinventing the City@MIT panel on “Urban Ecology and the City: How can Urban Ecologists Transform Cities?”

November 2011: Several scientists met as part of the Scenarios for Snohomish Basin 2060 project for an Integrated Model Workshop to examine how regional models can complement the Scenario Planning approach in characterizing long-term implications of multiple uncertain drivers. Click here for more information.

August 2011: Julia Michalak and Karis Tenneson both attended the 96th Annual Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in Austin, TX. Julia contributed both an oral presentation, “Effects of urban development and forest cover patterns on Garry oak (Quercus garryana) acorn dispersal processes,” and a poster, “Conservation planning in the classroom: Applying project-based pedagogy to promote interdisciplinary learning.” Karis gave a presentation on her research, “Understanding urban forest structure of residential landscapes in the Seattle metropolitan urban(izing) region.”

August 2011: At the “Scenario Development Meeting” of the Scenarios for Snohomish Basin 2060 project, 8 Science Team experts refined the Scenario Logics by selecting variables and end-states of climate change and human values, also discussing potential hypotheses and changing trajectories of other driving gorces. Click here for more information.

Matteo Alberti, now 3 and a half, visited Italy with his mom in July

June 2011: The “Scenario Logics” workshop for the”Scenarios for Snohomish Basin 2060″ project was held at the Washington Park Arboretum. Members of the Science Team and Steering Committee identified alternative hypotheses (storylines) for future conditions in the Basin by challenging our assumptions about plausible driver interactions and their implications on ecosystem services. Attendees selected Climate Change and Human Values as the two most important and uncertain driving forces to focus our attention on. Click here for more information.

May 2011: Marina Alberti presented at 2011 International Urban Wildlife Management and Planning Conference in Austin, TX. Dr. Alberti’s keynote address was titled: “Ecological Resilience in Urbanizing Landscapes: Emerging Hypotheses and Implications for Wildlife Habitat Planning.”

April 2011: Karis Tenneson and Julia Michalak presented at the U.S. International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) symposium in Portland, OR:Michalak, J. “Effects of Landscape Pattern on Oak Dispersal and Regeneration in an Urban Landscape.” April 2011. US International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) Symposium, Portland, OR. Tenneson – Puruncajas, K. “Understanding urban forest structure of residential landscapes in the Seattle metropolitan urban(izing) region” April 2011. U.S. International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE) symposium, Portland, OR.

March 2011: Marina Alberti and Mary Roderick presented at the Resilience 2011 meeting “Resilience, Innovation, and Sustainability: Navigating the complexities of global change” at Arizona State University. Dr. Alberti’s talk was titled “Resilient Patterns in Hybrid Ecosystems,” and Ms. Roderick presented a poster with Dr. Robert Mugerauer titled “Refocusing Urban Ecological Design: From Renewing Seattle’s Waterfront to Resilience for Elliott Bay-Puget Sound.”

Matteo Alberti, now 3, has traveled with his mother to Massachusetts and California during her sabbatical.

November 2010: The Conceptual Model Workshop for the “Scenarios for Snohomish Basin 2060” project was held at the Washington Park Arboretum. Thirty Science Team members participated in a lively discussion of the Basin’s future. To read more about the workshop, click here.

November 2010: Libby Larson, UERL Lab Manager / Research Scientist, successfully defended her dissertation “Water and Nitrogen in Designed Ecosystems: Biogeochemical and Economic Conequences” on November 10^th. Congratulations Dr. Larson!

October 2010: Tracy Fuentes, UERL graduate student, was awarded the prestigious 2010 Bullitt Environmental Fellowship. Her doctoral research will explore how land use and land use changes affect plants at the local, watershed, and regional scales. Congratulations Tracy!

August 2010: Congratulations to Dr. Ahmed Al-Noubani of the UERL, who successfully defended his dissertation “Dynamics of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change: The Case of the Palestinian West Bank” on August 18, 2010.

June 2010: Matt Marsik, UERL Postdoctoral Research Associate, has taken a position at the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in the Conservation Biology Division. Although Matt will be sorely missed, we congratulate him on his new position.

June 2010: The UERL has hired Elisabeth (Libby) Larson, ABD, to replace Dr. Lucy Hutyra as UERL Lab Manager / Research Scientist. Libby is a graduate student at Arizona State University, working withDr. Nancy Grimm, and a fellow in ASU’s IGERT in Urban Ecology. Welcome Libby!

February 2010: Congratulations to UERL lab member Julia Michalak for successfully passing her general exams!

January 2010: The UERL recieved a two-year grant from the Bullitt Foundation to develop scenarios for the Snohomish Basin. The project will serve as a practicum for students in Marina Alberti and Michal Russo’s Advanced Environmental Planning class.

November 2009: Congratulations to Karis Tenneson Puruncajas, who successfully passed her general exams this month!
October 2009: UERL Lab Manager / Research Scientist, Dr. Lucy Hutyra is leaving the lab to take up her new position as Assistant Professor of Geography & Environment at Boston University. We all congratulate her and wish her well — she will be sorely missed!

September 2009: We welcome back Michal Russo, who has returned to Seattle with her family. She now works at the lab as a Research Scientist.

September 2009: Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Bjorn of the UERL, who successfully defended his dissertation, “Assessing the relationships between land cover and housing prices in King County, Washington using Bayesian Model Averaging” on September 8, 2009.

August 2009: A two-day Biocomplexity II Workshop was held in Seattle on August 26-27 with participants from Arizona State University and the University of Washington.

July 2009: Michelle Kondo had a second child, and has accepted a teaching post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania.

June 2009: The UERL received funding from the Bullitt Foundation for a new project: “Linking urbanization and vegetation carbon patterns.” Lucy Hutyra started work on the project this summer with a team of student employees, Bryan Yoon and Kristi Park.

March 2009: Daniele Spirandelli successfully passed her general exams on March 10, and gave birth to twin girls, Nadia & Kaya, on March 18!

February 2009: The UERL welcomed our new Postdoctoral Research Associate, Matthew Marsik, who joined the lab on February 1, 2009. Matt received his PhD from from the University of Florida Geography Department with his dissertation: Interdisciplinary contributions to spatial and temporal analyses for land cover change. He is receiving funding from Weyerhaeuser for his work on land cover change modeling in the UERL.