People

Christoph Nolte

Assistant Professor

Christoph is a conservation scientist interested in understanding and comparing the effectiveness of efforts to protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems. Where do they occur? What do they cost? What difference do they make? Many of his research projects combine remote sensing and “big” spatio-temporal social data on people, policies, and properties with quasi-experimental causal inference and predictive machine learning.

Christoph Nolte

Christoph teaches environmental statistics, economics, data science for conservation decisions, and environmental data synthesis and analysis. He enjoys collaborating with government agencies, donors, land trusts, indigenous governments, and early-career researchers. Before coming to Boston to speak American and Python, he studied in four languages, and pursued conservation research in 24 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

  • Post-Doc, Earth System Science, Stanford University
  • PhD, Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan

Google Scholar | Research | Publications | Teaching

Information for prospective graduate students

Dr. Ana Reboredo Segovia

PhD graduate

Graduated May 20, 2023. Congrats!

Ana investigates the impacts of conservation interventions on deforestation and human well-being in Guatemala and the Colombian Andes. She uses mixed methods (interviews, matching analyses, remote sensing data). Ana is Argentinian-American, studied abroad in Costa Rica, France, Cameroon, and Italy, and speaks Spanish, English, French, and some Italian. Her research has been funded by NASA, National Geographic, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Commission.

  • M.Sc. Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems, University of Paris VI (France) / University of Florence (Italy)
  • B.Sc. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee

Sachini Ranasinghe

PhD student

Sachini is interested in applying Remote Sensing Techniques for inland water quality monitoring. She uses satellite imagery to study water quality parameters such as suspended particulate matter and algal bloom development in order to provide helpful information for the management and decision-making related to environmental conservation and policy development. Sachini is passionate about studying nature and climate and enjoys diving and traveling in her free time.

  • M.Sc Geology, Kent State University
  • B.Sc Marine Sciences, University of Ruhuna (Sri Lanka)

Emily French

Graduate research assistant

Emily uses remote sensing techniques and spatio-temporal statistics to investigate landscape-level environmental change. She has a background in Human Geography and is passionate about applied science, cartographic design, and science communication. Before moving to Boston, Emily taught GIS at Middlebury College and worked as a GIS analyst on urban planning, stormwater design, and conservation-focused projects. Her current research uses synthetic aperture radar data to detect deforestation and statistical matching methods to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation policy in the Colombian Andes.

  • BA Geography, Middlebury College

Payal Shah

Visiting researcher

Payal is a research scientist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Graduate University. Her research focuses on issues of habitat conservation and sustainability of natural resources. She uses economic theory and statistical methods, combined with tools from ecology and biogeography, to evaluate the impact of conservation policies and to develop optimal strategies for conservation efforts in the face of environmental and economic uncertainties. She is passionate about animal welfare issues and has been doing volunteer work with various animal rescue facilities in the USA and in Japan over the past 16 years.

  • PhD, Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • MBA, Management Development Institute, India

Julianne Vaughan

Undergraduate research assistant

Julianne is pursuing a double major in Environmental Analysis & Policy and Economics as well as a minor in Spanish at BU. She is particularly interested in the environmental impacts of the agriculture industry, and specifically its effect on land-use and deforestation. During her time as a legislation intern at Seaside Sustainability, she delved deeper into her interest in policy and worked with MASSPIRG to support several MA bills, including the expanded bottle bill (S.2149/H.3289). In her everyday life, she enjoys crocheting and cooking; she actively updates her cooking account on instagram @jumakesfood, which posts vegetarian dishes she makes throughout the week.

Katherine Anne

Undergraduate research assistant

Katherine is a student in the Earth and Environmental Science program pursuing the Earth Observations track. Her current interests include large scale modeling with a focus on data for policy use and promoting individual conversation efforts. During her freshman year chemistry course, she loved analyzing large spectroscopic data which lead to her pursing a path in remote sensing and GIS – fields that deal with large amounts of data and ways to interpret it best. While not studying or in class, Katherine enjoys contributing to her professional chemistry fraternity (Alpha Chi Sigma), watching hockey games, reading, and volunteer judging at National History Day Massachusetts.

Former Lab Members

PhD students

  • Dr. Adam Pollack, now postdoctoral scholar at Dartmouth College

Graduate research assistants

Visiting postdoctoral students

  • Dr. Blake Simmons, now Environmental Social Scientist at Tampa Bay Estuary Program
  • Dr. Hongbo Yang, now Researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Dr. Qi Zhang, now Research Scientist at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Undergraduate research assistants

  • Kaitlyn Lee, now PhD student at Arizona State University
  • Shelby Sundquist, now PhD student at North Arizona University
  • Becky Petrou O’Rourke
  • Colter Schroer
  • Caroline Koehl
  • Shraddha Pingali