I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography advised by Guido Cervone and an Environmental Scholar in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). I study the spatial dynamics of vegetation in the Galápagos Islands with remote sensing techniques. I want to understand how environmental factors drive the spread of invasive plants, the loss of native and endemic species, and the resulting impacts of vegetation change on the water cycle in the islands.
I earned my B.Sc. degree in environmental sciences and later my M.Sc. degree in hydrology from the University of Freiburg, Germany. Prior to joining Penn State, I worked for six years as a geospatial analyst and drone pilot at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. My laboratory work involved photogrammetrically processing drone footage to generate orthophotos and integrating these products with very high-resolution multispectral satellite images to produce fine-scale maps of plant species. These maps continue to help guide management actions in the archipelago. I aim to expand and enhance my previous work in this field and discover new questions along the way.