Postdoctoral fellows

The Earth Commons Academic Postdoctoral Fellowship (ECo Fellows) enables interdisciplinary research on various aspects of environment and sustainability challenges and scholarship (e.g., climate and climate change, biodiversity conservation, food and water security, environmental justice). ECo Fellows also co-teach with a faculty mentor for one semester.

Applicants to the postdoctoral fellowship propose to conduct research and teach with one or more Earth Commons Faculty Affiliate Mentors. Postdoctoral Fellowships are awarded for two years, although year two is contingent upon successful progress in year one. In accepting the appointment, the fellow is expected to be in residence at Georgetown University except for absences agreed upon with mentor(s). 

Gabrielle Carmine

Gabrielle Carmine is a marine sustainability scientist specializing in quantitative and geospatial analysis for ocean conservation solutions. Dr. Carmine’s work focuses on industrial fishing in the high seas, or the ~2/3 of the ocean lying beyond a nation’s exclusive economic zone. Fish landings from the high seas quadrupled between 1950 and 1990 and have led to the overexploitation of marine biodiversity, with almost no ocean area free from fishing today. Her previous PhD work from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment examined the ways in which fishing on the high seas is conducted and led by corporate actors without appropriate accountability by regional international governing bodies (RFMOs) and the ways this state of affairs may negatively impact conservation of high seas biodiversity. Using geospatial analyses of satellite-derived apparent fishing activity, she quantified and examined high seas fisheries dynamics through their beneficial ownership, governance under RFMOs, and possible solutions through the recently agreed United Nations treaty for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ).

Her post-doctoral work with Dr. Rebecca Helm aims to utilize ecological, economic, and governance datasets to identify targeted policy solutions that would reduce high seas fishing vessel over-capacity. She will apply this work to the future implementation of the UN BBNJ treaty, which presents a unique opportunity to limit fishing capacity and add to the work of redefining sustainable fisheries in the Anthropocene.

Ishir Dutta

Ishir Dutta is a postdoctoral associate who is an environmental scientist working on air pollution and climate. He earned his PhD at MIT, studying long-term trends in precursors of fine particulate matter, ozone, and acid rain, with a focus on nitrogen oxides. His research uses a combination of large observational datasets and numerical models to study where pollutants come from, how they are changed in the atmosphere, and the effects they have on air quality.

Tom Iwanicki

Dr. Iwanicki is a postdoctoral fellow and sensory ecologist studying the neustonic zone, the crucial and often overlooked layer of the ocean’s surface. His research not only unravels the mysteries of this unique habitat, but also sheds light on the impact of human activities, such as plastic and light pollution, to marine ecosystems. Using underwater photography and spectral measurements, Dr. Iwanicki characterizes light conditions and catalogs the diversity of animal coloration within this habitat. He models how and what animals see, particularly key and threatened species like sea turtles and seabirds, to better understand marine ecology and human impacts. By understanding the light environment and visual ecology at the ocean’s surface, Dr. Iwanicki seeks to emphasize the neustonic region as a unique habitat that requires distinct conservation policies. His work will support the development of effective regulations to mitigate the impacts of plastic pollution and light pollution, safeguarding the delicate balance of our oceans and biodiversity

Yiming Liu

Yiming, a postdoctoral fellow, is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work spans industrial ecology, risk and resilience, and AI for sustainability. At Georgetown, he is working with Dr. Roshi Nateghi to investigate the sustainability and supply-chain risks associated with food-system transitions in South America. By integrating life cycle thinking, risk assessment, and data-driven analysis, he aims to identify trade-offs, vulnerabilities, and opportunities that can support more sustainable and resilient food systems.

This research is a natural extension of Yiming’s doctoral work at Purdue University, where he developed a risk-modified life cycle assessment framework. His dissertation examined how accidents, spills, leaks, and other unintentional releases can create environmental impacts that conventional assessments may overlook. Through this work, he combined incident data, risk analysis, and life cycle assessment to better understand environmental risks across energy supply chains. At Georgetown, he is bringing this systems perspective to the evolving challenges facing food production and supply networks. 

Outside of research, Yiming enjoys staying active through running, swimming, and hiking. He also enjoys exploring new places and the cultural life of the DMV area.

Arjun Nellikkattil

Arjun is a climate physicist who applies advanced mathematical and machine learning techniques to study future changes in mean and extreme climate. During his Ph.D., he developed a generalized feature detection method to identify extreme events such as cyclones and atmospheric rivers. He is currently working with Prof. Megan Lickley to develop advanced machine learning algorithms that detect changes in future rainfall patterns, providing early warnings and reducing uncertainties. Arjun’s research also includes estimating the economic and health risks posed by climate change, with a particular emphasis on extreme events. His work aims to determine when these impacts will become distinguishable from the current climate and when actionable confidence in these changes can be achieved. These analyses will help policy makers to make effective resource allocation and better adaptation methods. By providing these insights, Arjun’s analyses will help policymakers allocate resources effectively and develop better adaptation strategies to mitigate the risks of climate change.

Walid Ouaret

Walid is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Earth Commons. His research explores how climate risk is detected, interpreted, and acted upon in vulnerable regions, with a particular focus on North Africa and the Middle East. He combines satellite remote sensing, field observations, climate indicators, land-use analysis, and institutional records to study drought, agricultural change, food security, and governance. His work seeks to improve climate-risk information for decision-making by revealing when environmental stress begins to carry wider social, economic, and political consequences.

Mae Saslaw

Mae is a paleoclimate researcher and geochemist working with Dr. Dagomar Degroot. As a postdoctoral fellow, Mae studies the climate history of the Chesapeake Bay region, with an emphasis on ecological and social responses to severe weather. Her work involves compiling paleoclimate data and developing new records using stable isotope measurements, field observations of the landscape and sediment, and analysis of maps and historical sources. She is interested in using climate data from the past and present to inform future water and soil resource management decisions.

Mae is also a collaborator on multiple projects synthesizing climate records from the Miocene, when global temperatures were ~4°C above pre-industrial. She completed her PhD at Stony Brook University, where she developed a new method for clumped isotope paleothermometry that enables interpretations of very old carbonate samples, and contributed data and mass balance modeling for Kenya’s Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in the world. Mae holds a BS in Geology from Portland State University and a BFA in Writing from Pratt Institute.

Gabriel L. Suchodolski

Gabriel L. Suchodolski is a political sociologist of development and environmental governance. He is interested in how states and civil society can deliberately change natural resource use. His research analyzes land policy, politics, and deforestation in Amazonia—the most human-sensitive global climate ‘tipping point.’ Gabriel draws on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork, comparative historical analysis, and quantitative data to explain social-environmental dynamics in Amazonia. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University, an MA in Sociology from Rio de Janeiro State University, and a BA in International Relations from the University of São Paulo. Before his PhD, Gabriel worked at the New Social Cartography of the Amazon Project (PNCSA) in Manaus, Brazil, where he assisted traditional communities and social movements in mapping the social use of their territories.

Francine Van den Brandeler

Francine is an applied researcher and policy analyst, focused on better preparing cities for the challenges associated with environmental degradation and climate change. Her work is inter and trans-disciplinary, and embedded at the research-policy-practice interface. Her ongoing research projects examine governance barriers relating to the implementation of multifunctional blue-green infrastructure in the Swiss lowlands (in collaboration with Biologists and Political Scientists at Eawag, in Switzerland), and decentralized water reuse technologies in megacities of the Global South (in collaboration with Eawag Engineers and Practitioners from the WaterReuseLab in India). These projects aim to expand our understanding of how cities can design adequate governance frameworks to adapt to complex environmental challenges. 

Francine obtained a PhD in Urban Governance and International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam, under the supervision of Dr. Joyeeta Gupta. Her dissertation was on “Scalar Mismatches in Metropolitan Water Governance: A Comparative Study of São Paulo and Mexico City”, and it addressed governance challenges that prevent mega-cities in the Global South from better managing their water resources. During her doctoral studies, she participated in the Young Scientists Summer Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna. Francine was also a co-author of the GEO For Cities Report prepared by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), which provided guidance to city governments around the world on how to make cities more resilient and sustainable. Before joining the Earth Commons she was a research fellow at the water research institute Eawag, based in Switzerland, and the water and climate lead at Greenleaf Communities, a Chicago-Based NGO focused on bridging environmental sciences and effective policy solutions. Francine’s work and research experience spans across more than 14 countries in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Yanyu Wang

ECo Postdoctoral Fellow Yanyu Wang is an environmental scientist specializing in sustainable agriculture and nitrogen management. Her research combines systems modeling, geospatial analysis, nutrient budgeting, and stakeholder engagement to develop science-based solutions for sustainable agri-food systems.

Yanyu earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, where she investigated nitrogen management and nutrient circularity in agricultural systems across the US and China. Her doctoral research quantified nitrogen budgets across the contiguous US and explored strategies to improve nitrogen management both domestically and globally, including advancing manure nutrient recycling and optimizing agricultural trade to maximize the benefits of nitrogen for food production while minimizing its environmental impacts.

At Georgetown, Yanyu is working with Professor Megan Lickley to advance understanding of environmental and climate impacts of agri-food systems and identify actionable strategies to recouple crop and livestock production as a critical step toward regenerative and sustainable food systems.

Jordan Wilson

Jordan Wilson is a skeletal biologist and bioarchaeologist specializing in the relationship between environmental change, disease, and human skeletal health and development. She earned her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Tulane University before completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at The University of Arizona. During her doctoral studies, Dr. Wilson focused on identifying malaria in Roman infant skeletal remains using paleopathological methods and explored the broader impact of this disease on the living community.

After earning her Ph.D., Dr. Wilson undertook an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State, where she gained insight into the formation of developmental skeletal pathologies from the early embryonic period onward using advanced 3D imaging techniques.

Currently, Dr. Wilson is an Earth Commons postdoctoral fellow, continuing her research on malaria. Her work integrates disease ecology, skeletal biology, paleoclimatology, archaeology, and history to reconstruct the past environmental and social conditions that facilitated the transmission of malaria in ancient Greece and Italy. By employing transdisciplinary methods and frameworks such as planetary health, syndemics, and One Paleopathology, she aims to understand how changing environmental conditions contribute to long-term negative health outcomes for communities where malaria is present and where it is expected to resurge due to climate change. Dr. Wilson collaborates with multiple interdisciplinary researchers both at Georgetown and beyond.

Faculty Fellows

The ECo Faculty Fellowship supports Georgetown faculty actively pursuing inter- or cross-disciplinary work around the environment and sustainability. Faculty Fellows are engaged in shared, long-term projects for multiple years.

Derek Goldman

Derek Goldman, co-Founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (the Lab) and Professor of Theater and Performance Studies, is developing a ground-breaking initiative with vibrant curricular and public programming elements at the intersection of performance/ multi-disciplinary arts and the environment. Together with the Earth Commons, he will curate an innovative high-profile program of public events, festivals, performances, residencies and concerts at the intersection of environment, climate, intergenerational justice, sustainability, global health and development. He will serve as a core resource to integrate the arts into ECo curricular development initiatives.

Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò

Olúfẹmi O. Táíwò is an associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University who combines Black radical tradition, philosophy of language, social science, materialist thought, and histories of activism and activist thinkers in his explorations of environmental and climate justice.

Research Fellows

Hannah Nesser

Hannah is an atmospheric scientist and Research Fellow at the Earth Commons. Her research uses atmospheric observations to quantify greenhouse gas fluxes and their drivers at the spatial and temporal resolutions needed to improve process understanding and support climate policy. Her Ph.D. work used methane observations from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) aboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite to quantify methane emissions across North America at 25 km × 25 km resolution, improving understanding of emissions from individual states, urban areas, and landfills. As a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she used data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) to estimate carbon dioxide fluxes and to assess how much information satellite observations can provide about them. She leads an international team implementing these methods in the Integrated Carbon Inversion, an open-source tool that will use atmospheric observations of both carbon dioxide and methane to infer emissions. At Georgetown, she will apply these methods to improve understanding of the emission sources of fluorinated gases. 

After completing her B.S. in Environmental Engineering at Yale University, Hannah spent a year working for the Union of Concerned Scientists as a legislative assistant. She completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University and her postdoctoral fellowship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Gizem Toplu-Tutay

Gizem is an operations research scientist whose work focuses on decision-making under uncertainty for climate-resilient infrastructure and emergency response. She develops data-driven, stochastic, and multi-objective optimization models to examine how extreme events disrupt critical infrastructure systems, including power grids and healthcare networks, and how investment and operational decisions can reduce both system losses and adverse societal impacts. At Georgetown, she works with Roshi Nateghi and the SuRGE Lab to advance decision-support methods for sustainable and resilient systems.

She earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Boğaziçi University. She also has prior industry experience in energy markets and logistics.

Post-baccalaureate Fellows

ECo Post-baccalaureate Fellows are Georgetown alumni designing and implementing environmental and sustainability projects on campus and in our local and global communities. Fellows work in collaboration with faculty and other centers at the University and further our university’s mission to care for our common home. Fellowships have been awarded for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Daisy Fynewever

Daisy is a former student gardener who attended Georgetown for her undergraduate degree (CAS ’26), earning a BS in Environmental Biology and a BA in Justice and Peace Studies. She is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Daisy is excited to combine her knowledge of sustainability, biology, and urban agriculture to help the garden grow! She loves the unique combination of hands-on and academic work that the garden offers as a living laboratory, and is looking forward to expanding and contributing to research in the garden, as well as providing delicious food to our community. You can find Daisy outside inspecting the squash plants and dreaming up soup recipes to make next fall. 

Sign up for our newsletter for updates

Our newsletter includes breaking research and stories, fellowship and job postings, environment and sustainability events and educations opportunities, and much more.

Subscribe Now