Leadership

Bob Kopp

Bob Kopp

Robert Kopp is a climate scientist who serves at Rutgers University as a distinguished professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. He also directs the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub.

Postdocs

Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar is a postdoctoral researcher in the Earth System Science & Policy Lab at Rutgers University, where he currently works on producing sea-level hindcasts and projections using the Framework for Assessment of Changes To Sea-level (FACTS). His research focuses on understanding the role of climate variability in influencing ocean-atmosphere interactions through the examination of feedbacks between ice sheets, oceans, and the atmosphere. In addition to his work on sea-level change, Praveen is also interested in the potential impact of climate variability on the economy and human well-being, as well as the application of climate risk management under conditions of deep uncertainty. As a native of the Goan coastline, Praveen is committed to understanding the potential risks that climate change poses to global coastal communities. In his leisure time, Praveen enjoys playing table tennis, cooking, and spending time by the water.

Yucheng Lin

Yucheng Lin

Yucheng Lin is a postdoctoral researcher in the Earth System Science & Policy Lab at Rutgers University working on the PaleoSTeHM project that aims to produce a modern and scalable spatio-temporal hierarchical modelling framework for paleo-environmental data. His research examines different physical processes impact on sea-level change in the past and future under changing climate. He focuses on developing novel physical and statistical tools to better understand the mechanisms that drive spatio-temporal variability of sea-level change, which can be used to produce more accurate and robust sea-level projections. In free time, Yucheng enjoys reading, cooking, climbing and hiking.

Graduate students

Diana Apoznanski

Diana Apoznanski

Diana is a PhD student in the Atmospheric Science program through the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. Her research, as part of the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH) Hazards team, investigates extreme flood risk from storm surge associated with extratropical cyclones (locally known as nor’easters). Her professional goals include using scientific research to aid organizations affected by climate change and extreme weather events. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked on the Catastrophe Modeling and Applied Research team at The Hartford Insurance Group. She graduated from Penn State University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, a minor in Energy Business and Finance, and a Certificate in Geographic Information Science. In her free time, Diana enjoys being outdoors, whether she is hiking, biking, or paddle boarding.

Dan Blanco

Dan Blanco

Dan Blanco is a PhD student in the Atmospheric Science program through the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. They hold a Bachelor’s degree in Physics with an emphasis in mathematics from Lewis University. They are a former CIERA REU student through Northwestern University where their work focused on the Laurentian Great Lakes hydrology. They are affiliated with the Climate Impact Lab and the MACH Hazards Team. Their work aims to use climate models in better understanding the idea of time of emergence of climate change, particularly when it comes to future projections of sea level rise. A combination of natural hazards forecasting and socioeconomic data will be used alongside statistical methods to determine the time of emergence of sea level rise for the Northeastern U.S. This work will assist policy makers and urban planners to determine when and where detections of sea-level changes become regionally evident beyond natural variability. Local risk assessment, mitigation, and adaptation planning can benefit from this work to better facilitate community responses to sea level rise.

Laura Geronimo

Laura Geronimo

I am pursuing a PhD in Planning and Public Policy at the Bloustein School. My research interest lies at the intersection of coastal climate risk and resilience, land use planning, and social equity issues. I plan to apply mixed methods and transdisciplinary research approaches to better understand how communities are adapting to coastal hazards. Along with the physical risks that threaten coastal communities (e.g.: sea level rise, storms and storm surge, erosion), I study the spatial distribution of social vulnerability, patterns of coastal development, and the political, institutional, and practical barriers to implementing efficient and equitable adaptation strategies. I am currently developing a research design to evaluate equity considerations in federally funded property-acquisition programs. I graduated from Georgia Tech with a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning in 2019. Prior to Georgia Tech I spent 5 years in Puerto Rico where I worked in climate change adaptation and hazard mitigation planning.

Staff

Moira Scheeler

Moira Scheeler

Moira Scheeler is a program coordinator for the Rutgers Earth System Science & Policy Lab and the Megapolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH). In 2023 she earned my Masters of City and Regional Planning at Rutgers University, concentrating in Environmental Planning & Coastal Resilience. In 2021 I earned my bachelors degree in Sustainability from Stockton University with a focus in Environmental Policy and Economics.

Alex Reedy

Alex Reedy

Alex is a Research Associate / Research Software Engineer at the Rutgers University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. His focus is in optimization and testing of software to model historical and future sea-level changes. Alex received his BSc in Physics from Rowan University, and his MSc in Astrophysics from Queen Mary University of London. Before starting at Rutgers in 2023, Alex helped efforts at NASA ARC to investigate galaxy and star formation using SOFIA’s FIFI-LS Instrument. He then spent time at the California Institute of Technology where he lead the software integration of a new spectroscopy camera into the SEDM instrument at the Palomar Observatory. He also aided in the installation of SEDMv2 at the Kitt-Peak National Observatory. Alex also enjoys writing and playing music as well as climbing, hiking, and camping.

External Affiliates

Roger Creel

Roger Creel

Roger is a PhD candidate at Columbia University working with Dr. Jacky Austermann. His research examines sea-level change in the past and future and its effect on permafrost and sedimentary processes. Roger graduated from Amherst College with degrees in geology and English. When not doing science, Roger dances and directs the Louisville Ballet's Shakespeare in Dance series.

Robert Fofrich

Robert Fofrich

Robert Fofrich is an earth system scientist and a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and was previously a postdoctoral associate in the Climate Impact Lab and the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University. Robert’s research focuses on global environmental change and human society. Specifically, climate change impacts to global society, climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges, inequity of climate change, environmental justice, anthropogenic land-use drivers, and human-driven habitat reduction, biodiversity loss, and wildlife decline.

Alumni

Postdocs

  • Erica Ashe, now freelance data scientist
  • Meredith Fish, now Senior Data Scientist (Climate Analytics) at McKinsey & Company
  • Andra Garner, now tenure-track faculty at Rowan University
  • Gregory Garner, now Climate Change Impact Data Scientist at Gro Intelligence
  • Daniel Gilford, now Climate Scientist at Climate Central
  • Carling Hay, now Director, Climate and Social Impact Analytics at ICE Data Services
  • Dawei Li, now tenure-track faculty at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Eric Morrow, now Director, Data Science - Machine Learning Centre of Excellence at BMO Financial Group
  • D.J. Rasmussen, now Risk and Resilience Consultant, Advanced Technology and Research Team at ARUP
  • Laura Reynolds, now tenure-track faculty at Worcester State
  • Jennifer Walker, now tenture-track faculty at Rowan University
  • Jiacan Yuan, now tenure-track faculty at Fudan University

Graduate students

Undergraduate students

  • Corie Hlavaty (senior thesis student; BS ‘13 in Geological Sciences)
  • Kinan Tadmori (undergraduate research assistant, 2012-2013; BS ‘15 in Biological Sciences/Environmental Policy)
  • Andrew Wang (undergraduate research assistant, 2012-2013; BS ‘15 in Mechanical Engineering)
  • Zeal Shah (undergraduate research assistant, 2013-2014; BS ‘15 in Mechanical Engineering)
  • Emily Zee (undergraduate research assistant, 2013-2014; BS ‘16 in Mechanical Engineering)
  • Christina Williamson (summer research experience, 2016; Pomona College)
  • Rachel DiSciullo (undergraduate research assistant, 2015-2016; BS ‘16 in Philosophy and Political Science)