Tien Ming obtained his Ph.D. in biology from University of California in San Diego. He also holds an M.S. and a B.S. in Biology from the National University of Singapore. Ming was visiting assistant in research at Yale University and he is interested in the impacts of past and future global environmental change (including climate and land-use changes) on biodiversity, protected areas, conservation prioritization across multiple scales, the structure and implications of local, national, and global attitudes and behaviors on biodiversity conservation and environment, the implications of emerging Asian economies on regional and global biodiversity and environment, and the anthropogenic drivers and correlates of local and global extinction risks in animals and plants. Ming will work with the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Professor Ruth DeFries and with the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication under the direction of Anthony Leiserowitz. He will concentrate on the human dimensions of global biodiversity conservation and implications from the emerging Asian economies.
Ying Li received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She also holds an M.S. and a B.S. both in Environmental Science from Beijing University in China. Ying Li is interested in interdisciplinary research on the health benefits of air pollution control and climate change mitigation. Her dissertation, entitled “Health Benefits of Traffic-Related Particulate Matter Control Policies: The Case of Bangkok, Thailand” was honored in 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and one section of the dissertation won the 2007 Society for Risk Analysis Student Merit Award in Dose Response Assessment. Ying Li published papers on co-benefits of greenhouse gas reduction, burden of disease attributed anthropogenic air pollution, and air quality improvement valuation, mainly in less developed regions. At the earth institute under the direction of Patrick Kinney, Ying will evaluate the health benefits and co-benefits of air pollution control and climate change mitigation strategies in the transportation sector.
Jaime received an ScD from the Harvard School of Public Health and obtained an MPH in Epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and an BE in Environmental Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology also in New Jersey. Jaime will be working on local solutions to global problems of environmental health and climate change mitigation through vulnerability assessment under the direction of Patrick Kinney.
Nada holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a B.A. from Columbia University with a dual major in Physics and Mathematics. Her thesis work developed optimal suppression strategies for California wildfires by coupling physical models and economic damage estimates. She also participated in an interdisciplinary project on coral reefs through the Luce Environmental Science to Solutions Fellowship and was a member of Engineers Without Borders. Nada’s current research focuses on the interpretation and use of scientific information in the context of severe weather events under the direction of Ben Orlove and Kenneth Broad at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.
James obtained a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Geography from the University of Arizona and a B.S. in Earth Sciences from the University of California in Santa Cruz. During the early stages of his graduate studies, James collaborated with the Arizona State Epidemiologist on a project to identify associations between precipitation and incidence of human hantavirus infections. He realized the need to identify the roles of climate in disease systems and the demand for this information from public health officials. His work at the Earth Institute under the direction of Jeffrey Shaman will be focused on the viral response to climate change and in the development of predictive models.
Katherine received a Ph.D. and an M.S. from University of Virginia, Department of Environmental Sciences, and a B.S. from Kenyon College with a mayor in English and Spanish and minors in Biology and Environmental Science. During her M.S. program, Katherine examined the effects of climate change on leaf chemistry in tropical forests generating from deforestation and agricultural overuse in the lowlands of Costa Rica, and for her Ph.D. she studied the effects of farm management and structure on nutrient dynamics in coffee agro-forests. Her work at the Earth Institute will be under the direction of Pedro Sanchez and Cheryl Palm at the Tropical Agriculture Program. She will be focused on measuring and scaling indicators of sustainable agriculture and food security in the sub-Saharan Millennium Villages.
Meng Xu holds a Postdoctoral Associate position at the Laboratory of Population of the Rockefeller University and will be working with Joel Cohen at the same institution. His area of research is in stochastic processes and mathematical biology. Meng Xu graduated with a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Wyoming and a B.S. in Mathematics Science from Shandong Normal University.
Ana obtained her Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. She also holds an M.A. in sociology from Complutense University, Spain, and a B.A. in economics from Los Andes University, Colombia. She is interested in the causes and consequences of the creation of order in contexts of violence. Her dissertation, entitled "Social Order in Civil War", investigates civilian-combatant relations and institutional change during wartime. Her work explores the circumstances under which non-state armed groups become de facto rulers in war zones, the determinants of civilian choice and the effects of these forces on local institutions. She conducted fieldwork in Colombia, where she gathered micro-level evidence on the behavior of guerrillas, paramilitaries and civilians. At the Earth Institute she will be affiliated with ISERP, and her mentor will be Macartan Humphreys. She will work on several collaborative projects that investigate the dynamics of wartime institutional change at the local level and its effects on several outcomes including poverty, political participation, social reconciliation and state building.
Andrew received his Ph.D. in complex systems and natural resource management from the University of Michigan. He also holds a master’s in applied science and environmental engineering from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. His principle fields of interest are coupled natural-human systems, decentralized water management, agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon, concessionary forestry in the Congo Basin, and agent-based and systems-dynamics simulation. Bell will work primarily with Brendan Buckley at LDEO’s Tree Ring Lab, focusing his research on the links among history, climate, agriculture and development in the Lower Mekong Basin.
Sarah received her Ph.D. in 2009 from Rhodes University, South Africa, and has since been working as part of the Earth Institute MVP Monitoring and Evaluation team at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development. She holds degrees in both social and environmental sciences, with an emphasis on analysis of coupled natural-human systems. Her key research interests are in understanding the tradeoffs between use of natural resources, rural livelihoods, human health and nutrition, and food security. As an Earth Institute Fellow, she will work with Paul Pronyk and Cheryl Palm to build a framework for understanding how the implementation of the Millennium Villages Project has impacted key health, food security and environmental outcomes in various African contexts.
Hope received her Ph.D. in applied economics from Cornell University and holds a master’s in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her main research interests include the effects of agro-industrialization and market participation on farmer welfare, welfare dynamics and asset poverty, private sector development initiatives in subsistence markets, and agricultural technology adoption. At the Earth Institute, Hope is devising a methodology for measuring poverty in the Millennium Villages by evaluating participants’ incomes and assets, relationships between health and economic outcomes, non-participation or dropout of some community members, and adoption of commercial farming markets and technologies. Her mentors are Cheryl Palm and Pedro Sanchez of the Tropical Agriculture and the Rural Environment Program.
Alexandra has joined CIESIN for a two-year appointment as an Earth Institute Fellow. Alexandra holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in environmental change and management from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, England, where her research focused on the environmental impacts of oil palm cultivation in Borneo using radar and optical remote sensing. She also analyzed various market mechanisms being developed to reduce tropical deforestation, including sustainability certification and REDD. At the Earth Institute, Alexandra plans to research the role that global trade in foods, such as vegetable oils, has as a driver of land-use change.
Daniel is coming to the Earth Institute from Stanford, where he received his Ph.D. in applied physics. He intends to apply his technical skills to problems important to issues of sustainability by focusing on energy in the developing world. As an Earth Institute Fellow, Daniel will work with Vijay Modi to provide new ways of delivering electricity to isolated areas. His project will utilize solar photovoltaics and telecommunications to provide electricity in a business model similar to prepaid minutes of mobile time. He envisions this project adding to the understanding of how to sustainably deliver unsubsidized energy to regions still lacking modern energy resources and showing new ways to leverage mobile technology in development efforts.
Annika received her doctorate in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Her dissertation explored associations between poverty and mental health in rural Africa, based on baseline data from the Millennium Villages Project. She has a clinical background in social work, and holds a master’s in Social Welfare with a specialization in health from the University of California at Berkeley. As an Earth Institute Fellow, Annika will join Paul Pronyk on the Monitoring and Evaluation team to provide technical assistance to the Nigerian government with a Scale-Up Initiative to achieve the MDGs in 113 Local Government Areas (about 20 million people). Independently, she will coordinate a prospective mixed-methods process evaluation of this initiative to explore the complex challenges associated with the sustainable implementation of proven interventions in diverse hard-to-reach communities in Nigeria.
Tara holds a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Princeton University, where she studied the hydrology of northern Eurasia with a focus on uncertainty and change in terrestrial water and energy cycles. As an Earth Institute fellow, she intends to conduct a holistic study that accounts for seasonal variability, climate change, population change and human effects on the water cycle that would provide critically needed information about the effect of water scarcity on sustainable development. Tara will be working primarily with the IRI under Steve Zebiak and Andrew Robertson.
Derek received his Ph.D. in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and an M.P.A./International Development degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School. His doctoral work developed a systems thinking framework for enabling policymakers to identify the most appropriate anti-malaria programs to implement in their communities. As an Earth Institute Fellow, he will be working with both the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). Derek will be working with Stephen Connor (IRI) and Sabine Marx (CRED) to examine the impact of climate on malaria transmission as well as how malaria policymakers use information to make decisions.
SIGN UP