Karl Benedict Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-3622 x234 Email: kbene@edac.unm.edu
Website: http://edac.unm.edu
Karl Benedict is the Director of the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico. At EDAC he has worked on a wide variety of development projects including remote sensing applications for transportation infrastructure safety and security, the development of integrated systems for the delivery of environmental public health information, interoperable information architectures for the execution and delivery of regional dust forecasts to public health officials, web-based data discovery and delivery applications as a part of EDAC’s clearinghouse, and a number of standards-based web-mapping applications.
He also manages EDAC’s IT program, developing and executing plans for the evolution of EDAC’s computational resources and applications as technologies mature and change. Dr. Benedict has also developed and presented classes and training in Open Source Geographic Information Systems (GIS), statistical analysis, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards implementation. Prior to joining EDAC in 2000, Dr. Benedict worked in the private sector, for the US Forest Service and the National Park Service conducting archaeological research, developing database applications, performing data analysis and developing spatial analysis applications.
Max Bleiweiss
Phone: (575) 646-5646 Email: mbleiwei@taipan.nmsu.edu
Website: http://carsame.nmsu.edu/
Max Bleiweiss (MS, Physics, California State College, Los Angeles) is a Science Specialist with New Mexico State University (College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences). Mr. Bleiweiss’ research interests involve the applications of satellite remote sensing information in operational, real-time, environments. Mr. Bleiweiss is the Director of the Center for Applied Remote Sensing in Agriculture, Meteorology, and Environment (CARSAME) at NMSU. He is a Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society.
Marnie K. Carroll
Phone: (505) 368-3556 Email: mkcarroll@dinecollege.edu
Marnie Carroll is the Executive Director of the Diné Environmental Institute (DEI). The Institute is actively involved in environmental research on Navajo Nation. Some of the strategic goals of the institute are to improve air quality, to improve water quality and quantity, to investigate climate change impacts, to monitor energy development and its environmental impacts as well as to encourage renewable energy development on Navajo Nation.
Some of the current research projects are: Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality and the Impacts of Coal Use in Shiprock, NM, Gas and Oil Well Drilling Impacts in Aneth, Utah, The Decline of Rana Pipiens on Navajo Nation, Global Monitoring of CO2 and the Impact of Trees and Phytoremediation of Uranium Tailings Using Native Phreatophytes.
DEI has an active, year round internship program with research interns working from two campuses at Diné College (Tsaile, Arizona and Shiprock, NM). Students can work in agriculture, conservation management, environmental science, environmental public health or educational research.
Janie Chermak Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-4906Email: jchermak@unm.edu
Website: http://www.unm.edu/~econ/faculty/chermak.html
Laura J. Crossey Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-5349Email: lcrossey@unm.edu
Website: http://epswww.unm.edu/facstaff/lcrossey/
Dr. Laura J. Crossey is a professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico, where she began her academic career in 1986. Crossey’s research interests include low-temperature geochemistry; including diagenesis, hydrochemistry and geomicrobiology. Her research approach emphasizes interdisciplinary field research. She has supervised over 25 graduate and 30 undergraduate students, and published in such diverse applications of geochemistry as nutrient cycling in aquatic systems, surface manifestations of mantle degassing (including travertines and springs), microbial diversity in spring systems, sandstone cementation processes during sediment burial, and planetary impact events.
Crossey is an active participant in UNM’s Hydrogeoecology Research Group and co-advises graduate and undergraduate students in Biology and E&PS. Crossey is a leader at UNM in efforts to increase minority participation in science, and is the Director for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation undergraduate research program in addition to the Bridge to the Doctorate. She is co-principal investigator of EMRGE (Ecohydrogeology of the Middle Rio Grande Environment), an NSF-funded program that places graduate students in Biology and EPS in rural middle schools. With her husband, E&PS professor Karl Karlstrom, she is leading design and installation of a major geoscience exhibition at Grand Canyon National Park: the Trail of Time. She has been elected as a Fellow of the Geologic Society of America, serves as Associate Editor for the Geological Society of America Bulletin, a premier journal in the Earth Sciences, and recently completed a term as President of the Sedimentary Geology Division of the society. She is active in the New Mexico Geological Society, and serves on the Board of the NMGS Foundation. She has been appointed to the New Mexico Math & Science Advisory Committee, a group that advises the state Public Education Department on science and math education, and is President-elect of the New Mexico Academy of Sciences..
Clifford N. Dahm Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-2850Email: cdahm@sevilleta.unm.edu
Website: http://bioannexlabs.unm.edu/P-P/110B.html
Dr. Clifford N. Dahm, an internationally-recognized expert in aquatic ecology, biogeochemistry, climatology and restoration biology, has been appointed Lead Scientist for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. In making the two-year appointment, Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman said, “With his broad understanding of water-related science and strong interest in linking science and policy, Cliff will provide crucial scientific leadership for the CALFED Program and the Delta. His collaborative and open style will help policy makers integrate science into Delta decision making.
Dahm is a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico (UNM), where he began his academic career in 1984. Dahm emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understanding aquatic ecosystems. He leads the Hydrogeoecology Research Group at UNM, studying aquatic ecology, interactions between stream and ground water, ways nutrients cycle through ecosystems, dissolved organic carbon in streams and riverine and riparian ecology.
In addition to heading the Hydrogeoecology Research group at UNM, Dahm’s current scientific leadership roles include director of the Freshwater Sciences Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, and co-principal investigator of the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program. Dahm recently completed a term as president of the North American Benthological Society, the premier national and international stream and river professional society. He is a member of the Science Steering Group for the Global Water Budget Program of the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Leeann S. De Mouche Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 646-3973Email: ldemouch@nmsu.edu
Eileen Everett
Phone: (505) 841-2837Email: EileenM.Everett@state.nm.us
Website: www.NMnaturalhistory.org
Eileen Everett is the Climate Change Educator for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque. Her background includes working as a Wildlife Biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service on endangered species issues and as Education Manager for Audubon New Mexico. Eileen has served on the board of the Environmental Education Association for New Mexico and has developed and implemented education programs for pre-school students and adults, and everything in between. Currently, she is developing climate change outreach programs, seminar series, family programs, and opportunities for the public to participate in citizen science.
Sam Fernald Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 646-1041Email: fernald@nmsu.edu
William M. Fleming Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-6455Email: fleming@unm.edu
William M. Fleming serves as director of the Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Planning and Design program and is Associate Professor in the Community and Regional Planning Program at the University of New Mexico. He initiated the NM Watershed Watch program, working with schools to monitor watershed health. Some of Dr. Fleming's publications include the Journal of the American Planning Association, focusing on riparian health and the Natural Resources Journal concerning water conservation and the transfer of development rights. At UNM He teaches courses in environmental planning and watershed management.
Joe Galewsky Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-4204Email: galewsky@unm.edu
Brian Hurd Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 646-2674Email: fbhurd@nmsu.edu
Lisa Majkowski
Phone: (575) 835-6168Email: lisamt@nmt.edu
Edward Albert Martinez, Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 454-3366Email: eamartinez@nmhu.edu
Edward Martinez, originally from northern, N.M., earned his Bachelor of Science in environmental science from New Mexico Highlands University in 1994, a masters in environmental and regional planning in 1998, and a doctorate in environmental and natural resource sciences from Washington State University, Pullman in 2000.
He did his postdoc at Washington State University with the Department of Natural Resources and with the School of Veterinary Science from 2001-2002. He was an assistant professor at California State University—Sacramento from 2002-2005. From 2005 to the present he has worked as an assistant professor in forestry at NMHU.
Martinez has published in a number of scientific journals reporting the effects of exposure to various trace metals, such as zinc and lead, on mouthpart development and growth in the aquatic insect larvae Chironomus tentans which have been published in the journals Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, and Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. Martinez has also published his work on Mars Analog research which investigates the possibility of water on the Planet Mars. Currently, at NMHU he is advising various graduate students and numerous undergraduate students and is the Project Director of a USDA-HSI grant and a Department of Education CCRAA grant which aim to increase the numbers of underrepresented students majoring in STEM disciplines. Additionally he is the Project Director for the NMHU sub-award of the New Mexico EPSCoR grant.
Kirk Minnick, MA
Phone: (505) 889-9358 Email: kminnick@evalteam.com
Kirk Minnick is Senior Research Associate and President of Minnick & Associates, Inc. He is currently program evaluator for the NM EPSCoR. He and his company are also currently conducting program evaluations or data analysis for K-12 schools, various school districts, the NM Public Education Department, universities and colleges. Over the last 20 years his company has provided program evaluation services for over 150 projects. Kirk has a MA in Educational Foundations from the University of New Mexico. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and National Council on Measurement of Education (NCME).
Robert R. Parmenter Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 428-7727Email: bparmenter@vallescaldera.gov
Website: http:// www.vallescaldera.gov
Bob Parmenter is the Preserve Scientist for the Valles Caldera Trust in northern New Mexico, and is responsible for organizing and coordinating the research, inventory and monitoring programs on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. He also is a member of the Valles Caldera Trust’s executive management team, which has the advantage of “placing science at the table” during strategic and programmatic planning and decision-making. In addition to his Trust duties, Bob also holds an associate research professorship position with the University of New Mexico’s Department of Biology in Albuquerque, an adjunct faculty member in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, and an adjunct professor faculty position in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. His scientific research interests include studies on ecosystem disturbance, climatic influences on plant and animal populations, successional processes, plant-animal interactions, predator-prey relationships of both vertebrates and invertebrates, decomposition and nutrient cycling, and the ecology of zoonotic diseases (specifically hantavirus, plague, and West Nile virus). Bob received his Bachelor’s degree from Colorado College in 1974, a Master’s Degree in Zoology from the University of Georgia in 1978, and his Ph.D. in Biology/Ecology from Utah State University in 1982.
Michael Pullin Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 835-6185Email: mpullin@nmt.edu
Michael J. Pullin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 1999 from Kent State University. Prior to his work with the Institute of Mining and Technology Dr. Pullin was a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Notre Dame and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in the area of aqueous environmental chemistry, with emphases in organic matter and its impact on the cycling and transport of nutrients, and the thermodynamics of metal-ligand interactions.
Todd Ringler Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 667-7744Email: ringler@lanl.gov
Website: http://public.lanl.gov/ringler/ringler.html
Dr. Todd Ringler is interested in understanding the Earth's climate system and, in particular, how it will evolve with increased greeenhouse gas forcing. Under this broad and rather complex subject, he has two primary topics of interest: developing innovative ideas for improving our climate system models, and quantifying the regional environmental threats that will cascade from continued greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Ringler is currently working with the Climate, Ocean, and Sea Ice Modeling Group, Theoretical Division, at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
View Dr. Ringlers Curriculum VitaeAlbert Rango Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 646-2120Email: alrango@nmsu.edu
Website: http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/
Dr. Rango led development of visual and digital methods for extracting snow covered area from a variety of satellite sensors. He conceived and designed the satellite snow cover version of the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) which is used for simulations, forecasts, and climate change evaluations. SRM is currently being adapted to the Rio Grande basin for operational forecasts. Dr. Rango developed the first techniques for analyzing satellite microwave data over large areas and developed a means for estimating snow water equivalent and depth on flat, high prairies and in large mountain basins. He developed a formalized algorithm as part of SRM for evaluating hydrologic response to climate change and has used it to evaluate river basin responses under varying conditions of climate change. He is the principal investigator for the JORNEX project (now a formalized part of the Jornada Basin LTER) and in that role directs the field experiments, integrates the various data being collected, and coordinates the joint cooperative investigations under the JORNEX umbrella. JORNEX, which was started in 1995, is the longest-running remote sensing experiment with data collected at least twice a year, before and after the monsoon season. Dr. Rango has assembled historic research records along with historic aerial photography of rangeland remediation treatments in the Jornada Basin to assess their effects on rangeland condition and ecosystem stability. He has developed hyperspatial remote sensing capabilities (<6 cm resolution) using simple digital cameras mounted on autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for use in rangeland health determinations.
Jose Rivera Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 277-0599 Email: jrivera@unm.edu
José A. Rivera is a professor of planning at the University of New Mexico and is a research scholar at the Center for Regional Studies. His research interests include water management institutions and the culture of water in comparative regions of the world. His publications include Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest, and a co-authored book, Rural Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities. He has served as an expert witness in water rights transfer applications in the State of New Mexico centered on the social, cultural and ecological impacts of the proposed changes in point of diversion and purpose of use.
Clyde Romero
Phone: (505) 989-6340Renzo Sanchez-Silva
Phone: (505) 277-3622 ext 239 Email: renzo@edac.unm.edu
Renzo Sanchez-Silva was born in Lima, Peru and obtained a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from Ponitificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. His Masters degree in Mathematics was completed in 2001 at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. He is currently completing a Doctoral degree at the University of New Mexico in the field of Differential Geometry. In parallel to his academic training in mathematics, Renzo has several years experience in IT and as a computer programmer. He began working with EDAC, the Earth Data Analysis Center at UNM, in 2008, and currently holds a full time position as an analyst programmer.
Jessica Sapunar-Jurisch
Phone: (505) 841-2836Email: jessica.sapunar-jursich@state.nm.us
Website: www.NMnaturalhistory.org
Jessica Sapunar-Jursich, passionate about informal science education, works as the Director of Education at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science. Previous endeavors included managing youth and family programs at the Museum, teaching in a second grade classroom, participating in Rio Grande silvery minnow rescue, serving on the board of the Environmental Education Association of New Mexico, and educating the public as an interpretive park ranger. Jessica earned her Licensure in K-8 Elementary Education in 2004 from the College of Santa Fe and her Masters in Environmental Education from UNM in 2001.
Caiti Steele Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 646-4144 Email: caiti@nmsu.edu
Dr. Caiti Steele is a College Assistant Professor at the Jornada Experimental Range at New Mexico State University. She is a graduate of Kings College, University of London where she was awarded her PhD in Geography in 2000. She is expert in environmental remote sensing and GIS applications. As a member of the EPSCoR team, she is currently working with Al Rango. They are testing different remote sensing and GIS approaches for estimating snow cover for input to the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM). She is also investigating object-based image analysis for estimation of forest canopy cover from low-cost, fine spatial resolution imagery. Caiti’s research interests are driven primarily by practical application. Once calibrated, the output from SRM will provide operational forecasts for all snowmelt dominated sub-basins in the Rio Grande headwaters. Her other research activities include (i) the development of a spatial database for management of public rangelands and (ii) a comparison of the physiology and spectral reflectance characteristics of native and exotic invasive dryland grass species.
Vince Tidwell Ph.D.
Phone: (505)844-6025 Email: vctidwe@sandia.gov
Dr. Vincent Tidwell is a Principle Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He has 18 years experience conducting and managing research on basic and applied projects in resource management, nuclear and hazardous waste storage/remediation, and petroleum recovery. Most recently efforts have focused on establishing a multi-agency, multi-university center devoted to the creation and application of computer-aided decision support tools and stakeholder mediated decision processes. Current projects have focused on the energy-water nexus, watershed management, design of water and thermal credit trading systems, climate change impacts and alternative energy systems evaluation.
Amanda B. White Ph.D.
Phone: (505) 913-1803 Email: abwhite@nmt.edu
Amanda White received her B.S. at Old Dominion University in 1997, her M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 and 2006, respectively, all in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She has been working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the past three years (2006 to 2009), and recently became part of the EPSCoR project. Amanda is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology with John Wilson. Her research interests are semi-arid hydrology, mountain hydrology, ecohydrology, and climate change impacts on all three. She studies water resources, including interactions between the water cycle and vegetation, and the influence of climate change. Recently, Amanda has studied the cause and hydrologic effects of the piñon pine tree death in the Southwestern U.S. using data mining and traditional statistical techniques to examine various types of satellite data (photosynthetically-related data for vegetation, soil moisture, precipitation, etc.), in addition to physically-based models (tRIBS).
John L WIlson Ph.D.
Phone: (575) 835-5308 Email: jwilson@nmt.edu
Website: http://www.ees.nmt.edu
John L. Wilson is Professor of Hydrology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, New Mexico. He has a BS from Georgia Institute of Technology, and MS, CE and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to New Mexico Tech he taught at MIT. Wilson is a current or former member of many professional society, university and government science advisory panels and committees, including the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advisory Committees for Geoscience, and for Environmental Research and Education, the National Research Council’s Committee on Hydrologic Science, and the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Committee on Fellows and the AGU Council. He is former Chair of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), and currently President of AGU’s 7,000 member Hydrology Section. Wilson is a Fellow of AGU and of the Geological Society of America (GSA), a former Darcy Lecturer, and a holder of the O.E. Meinzer Award from GSA and the Hydrologic Science Award from AGU. In his own work, which is mostly related to groundwater hydrology, Wilson’s current efforts focus on contaminant source identification, stream-aquifer interaction, including the hyporheic zone, and mountain hydrology. The last topic has taken him into related fields stretching from geostatistical precipitation estimation, through land-surface energy balance modeling, to remote sensing. Mountain hydrology in a changing climate is also the focus of his EPSCoR related efforts.