Research Team

Dr. Maria Tzortziou
Professor
Dr. Tzortziou's research integrates multidisciplinary datasets, satellite remote sensing observations, and ecosystem models to provide mechanistic insights into the impacts of human and environmental pressures on biogeochemical cycles and ecological processes along the continuum of terrestrial, wetland, estuarine, and open ocean ecosystems. Her research has taken her from the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay wetlands to the Yukon River delta in Alaska and the Arctic coastal ocean, from urbanized coastlines in the Mediterranean and Europe's trans-boundary watersheds to the Asian coastal megacities of Seoul and Busan, to the Hindu-Kush Himalayan river basins.

Dr. Tzortziou is on the Science Steering Committee for the Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry Program, on the Science Leadership Board of the North American Carbon Program, and member of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). She has served on the Steering Committee and Writing Team for the 2017-2027 NASA Ocean Biology & Biogeochemistry Program Advanced Science Plan, and she was Invited Chapter Author for the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2).  Tzortziou is Science Team Member for NASA's Earth Venture Instrument (EVI) Mission GLIMR (Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer), the Deputy Program Applications Lead for NASA's upcoming satellite mission PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), Associate Editor for Biogeosciences, and member of the 2014-2017 NASA PACE Science Team.
Link to Publications

Dr. Elizabeth Corbett
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Corbett joined the Tzortziou lab in 2016 after completing a NASA postdoctoral fellowship with Columbia University Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Corbett is a biogeochemist and her research interests focus on carbon cycling in urban wetlands, specifically looking at the quantity and stable isotope signatures of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) dissolved in marsh porewater and emitted to the atmosphere, and the quality of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) within the marsh pore water. Using pore water samples from sites dominated by distinct vegetation such as invasive Phragmites austraulis and native vegetation species (Spartina patens, Scirpus, Typha angustifolia, and Eleocharis), Dr. Corbett is interested in examining how marsh porewater chemistry, vegetation characteristics, density and depth of live plant roots affect respiration pathways, carbon storage, and the quality of carbon exported from urban wetlands.
Recent Publications: 

Dr. Guoqing Wang
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Wang joined the lab in 2018 after completing her Ph.D. in Marine Sciences at the Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her expertise is in the areas of bio-optical oceanography, ocean color, and remote sensing retrievals of phytoplankton pigments using satellite multi- and hyper- spectral imagery. Dr. Wang is currently involved in a number of projects focusing on assessing carbon and phytoplankton dynamics across different coastal environments, including the coastal Arctic, Southeast Asia, and Long Island Sound waters, and assessing impacts of human activities and environmental stressors on coastal ecological processes, development of hypoxic conditions, occurrence of bloom outbreaks, and change in fisheries habitat.
Recent Publications: 

Brice Grunert
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Brice joined the lab in 2018 after completing his PhD degree at Michigan Technological University. Brice's research focuses on optical characterization of DOM cycling, developing algorithms for multi- and hyperspectral ocean colors sensors and monitoring aquatic biogeochemical variability utilizing autonomous platforms. He enjoys combining large datasets to address complex research questions. He has experience working across the "salty divide", from wetlands, rivers and the Great Lakes to estuaries and the coastal ocean. He is currently working on projects in the Long Island Sound, coastal Arctic and Great Lakes watersheds.
Recent Publications: 

Brian Lamb
PhD Graduate student, NASA Fellow
Brian's research focuses on the study of large scale hydrologic and ecological processes. Brian earned a BS in Natural Sciences from Cornell University. His MSc thesis research at the City College of New York focused on the development of hydrologic climate indicators at the river basin scale as part of NASA's role in the National Climate Assessment. Brian is currently engaged in NASA funded research using active microwave and passive optical remote sensing to map wetland vegetation communities and inundation regimes in the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. Brian is particularly interested in using remote sensing to study processes along the upland-wetland-estuary continuum by linking the large scale synoptic observations of satellite remote sensing with the detailed observations obtained by field studies.
Publications and related links

Alana Menendez
PhD Graduate student, Bernard Levine PhD. Fellow, NOAA Fellow
Alana joined the lab in 2015 after completing her B.A. on Earth and Oceanographic Science at Bowdoin College. She is a Doherty Coastal Studies Fellow (2013), a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow (2012), a NASA GISS Fellow (2016), a Bernard Levine PhD Fellow (2017), and a NOAA CESSRST PhD Fellow (2018-now). Her general interests include land-water interactions relating to biogeochemical cycling and nutrients, relationships between nutrient availability and phytoplankton concentration and taxonomy, atmosphere-ocean carbon fluxes, climate change and changing marine biogeochemistry.

Sherry Perreira
MSc Graduate student
Sherry joined the lab in 2018 after receiving a BSc in Environmental Earth Systems Sciences from the Earth & Atmospheric Science Department of the City College of New York. She is currently a MSc Graduate Research Assistant in the LOA Lab. Her research interests include impacts of extreme weather events on coastal water quality, biogeochemistry, and ecology. Her MSc Thesis focuses on storms impacts on water quality in the New York Harbor and Western Long Island Sound using Landsat satellite observations. 

Dilchand Nauth
MSc Graduate student
Dilchand received his BSc from the Earth System Science & Environmental Engineering Department , Grove School of Engineering, City University of New York City College. He is currently an MSc Graduate Fellow with the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (NOAA-CESSRST). Dilchand joined the LOA Lab in 2019. His research focuses on integrating satellite observations with model simulations and surface measurements from NASA Pandora Network to characterize spatial and temporal variability in coastal atmospheric composition in response to human activities and local scale meteorological processes. 

Timothy Aaron Medina
MSc Graduate student
Timothy Aaron Medina, preferably referred to as Tiaame, focuses their research on identifying compositions of microplastic found in the Hudson River from the 2016 Rozalia expedition. Tiaame has an undergraduate degree in construction engineering technology at The City College of Technology, mapping Halepōhaku Maunakea using a small unmanned aerial vehicle (sUAV) for the Office of Maunakea Management, and steward natural resources with Hale O Lono fishpond in collaboration with University of Hawaii-Hilo; all sparked interest in Tiaame to partner with NOAA-CESSRST mission as a fellow and our lab to support coastal resiliency in New York City. Tiaame looks forward to serving for a cleaner ocean as a master scholar studying sustainability in the urban environment at The City College of New York, and as leader of the NOAA-CESSRST club.

Debbie Einhorn
MSc Graduate student, ​Master of Science, Sustainability in the Urban Environment
 Debbie received her BSc in Geology from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of the City College of New York. She is currently an MSc student in the Department of Sustainability in the Urban Environment. Her research interests include nutrient cycling, organic matter cycling, and the role of wetlands, marshes and other coastal habitat in climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

PhD Committee Advisees
2018 - now: Andrea Gomez (PhD in Earth & Atmospheric Science) - Main Advisor: Kyle McDonald.  Earth & Atmospheric Science Department, The City College of New York.

2017 - now: Nia Rene (PhD Student in  Earth and Environmental Sciences) - Main Advisor: Jennifer Cherrier. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Brooklyn College.

2014 - 2018: Blake Clark (MSc, PhD in Environmental Science) - Main Advisor: Raleigh Hood. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.  

2014 - 2017: Robert Foster (PhD in Environmental Engineering) - Main Advisor: Alexander Gilerson, Grove School of Engineering, City College of New York.

2011-2015: Daniel Goldberg (PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) - Main Advisor: Russell Dickerson. Dept of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland College Park. ​