High school student who did research at UCLA in the Tripati Lab. Rising Senior at MIT, with a planned Bachelor’s in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. Aspiring designer, trying to make products that make people happier or healthier.
Lilian Chou
Lilian Chou graduated from UCLA with a degree in Environmental Science and minor in Environmental Engineering. She is currently working in the City of Los Angeles while preparing to apply to ecology graduate school programs. In her spare time, she likes to go birding, being outdoors, and playing video games!
Ben Tran
Ben Tran studied Environmental Science with a minor in Environmental Engineering. He has a passion for learning about the intersection between the environment and economics in relation to sustainable business practices. With hopes of eventually working in the field of corporate sustainability, he has previously interned at CBS as a sourcing associate and has worked with UCLA Health on sustainable supply chain initiatives. As part of the Corporate Partners Program, he researched how companies can mitigate risk and increase sustainability along the supply chain by third-party verifiers. Outside of class, he enjoys being outdoors and staying active though hiking, camping, biking, and snowboarding. You can always find Ben with a smile, so if you see him around, don’t be shy to introduce yourself—he loves meeting new people.
Following graduation, Ben assumed the role of Sustainability Coordinator at Partner Energy.
Caitlin Cartmell
Caitlin Cartmell completed her B.A at UCLA in 2013 where she majored in Anthropology and minored in Geochemistry. She completed her Master of Forensic Sciences in 2016 and works as a forensic autopsy technician for the Denver County Office of the Medical Examiner in Denver, CO. She is currently researching lumbar lordosis as a means of sex identification in human skeletal remains as well as how different types of depositional environments affect human decomposition kinetics.
She will be applying for entrance into medical school in 2018 to aid in her goal of becoming a forensic pathologist.
Robert “Bear” N. Ulrich
Rob “Bear” N. Ulrich was a PhD student at UCLA. Trained as a chemist, Rob applies data science and machine learning to tackle big questions in geochemistry, from environmental change on Earth to the search for life on other planets. Bear co-founded the Reclaiming STEM Institute, a nonprofit that’s trained early-career researchers in inclusive science communication and policy.
Rachel Wei
Rachel is an undergraduate student pursuing a Computer Science major and an Earth Sciences minor at MIT. Her past work in environmental science was as a high school student, when she did research at UCLA studying clumped isotope samples for climate modeling, performing field research on shrinking meadow sizes in the Sierra Nevadas, and working with atmospheric data from the mini-LHR at NASA’s GSFC. More recent projects center on human city interactions, such as the effects of urban canyons on GPS accuracy and improved systems for police alert lines.
Rachel also enjoys working with and exploring various artistic mediums. Her newest ventures include ceramic wheel throwing and embroidery, while she continues work with ink, watercolor, and acrylic paints.
Samantha Praskin
Samantha Praskin graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Geography. She started working in the lab in 2013, and has stuck around since. Her favorite things to do in the lab is teaching and training new undergrads. She also likes working with high school students in the lab with the goals of showing them what they are capable of and to teach them the importance of science. She immensely enjoys working with kids of all ages, and she hopes to become an elementary school teacher. She encourages students to pursue their passions and to never give up!
Yama Dixit
I graduated with distinction in Chemistry from Delhi University and did my Post graduation in Environmental Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge, I studied the role of environmental change in the collapse of the Harappan Civilization by reconstructing the paleoclimatic history of the region. As a postdoctoral fellow based in France, I investigate the relationship between river runoff, nutrient loading, temperature, and deoxygenation in the ocean. I am also working with researchers at UCLA.
William Defliese
Dr. William Defliese is a stable isotope geochemist and carbonate sedimentologist, and is interested in the long-term records of climate and biogeochemical processes. He completed his B.A. at Northwestern University and his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.
Biao Chang
Biao Chang is a Ph.D. student at China University of Geosciences, Wuhan (2013~2018), where he works with Chao Li who studies iron speciation. He majors in geochemistry and study Precambrian climate change and the biological impacts. He was a visiting student researcher at UCLA.