Meet the Forest Ecosystems and Global Change group

Dr. Elsa Ordway

Elsa Ordway

​Principal Investigator

Elsa is an interdisciplinary ecosystem ecologist, working at the intersection of field ecology, land system science, remote sensing, and modeling. She draws on a wide range of methods and datasets to address research questions about forest ecosystem dynamics with an emphasis on exploring patterns of structure and function and the processes that underpin them, and the interactions between climate change, land use change, forest ecological responses, and people. Elsa also enjoys climbing in the Sierra and exploring LA.

Sumalika

Sumalika Biswas

​Postdoctoral Researcher

sumalikabiswas[at]ucla.edu

Sumalika is a remote sensing scientist interested in tropical ecology. She uses satellite and drone imagery in conjunction with field data, machine/deep learning models and programming to address interdisciplinary research questions in ecology, land system science, conservation biology, and fire ecology in the tropics. Her current research focuses on mapping forest phenology and land cover change in the Dja landscape in Cameroon. Outside the lab, Sumalika enjoys exploring the landscape, culture and food scene in LA and Flagstaff.

Robert Fofrich

Robert Fofrich

​Postdoctoral Researcher

robertfofrich[at]ucla.edu

Robert is an earth system scientist and a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. His research interests are in mitigating global environmental change and adapting vulnerable communities to a changing environment. He is currently researching biomass-sourced climate change mitigation strategies and their effects on global conservation goals and local crop production. He received his Ph.D. in 2022 in earth system science from the University of California, Irvine, where his dissertation focused on the energy-sector challenges of limiting future climate warming at or below 2oC and the impacts on global agricultural systems if international climate targets are surpassed. Robert has also previously served on the Orange County Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology (OCSCB) board, and he is now a part of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) Postdoctoral Council (PDC). Before entering academia, Robert worked on various environmental issues facing indigenous communities in North America and spearheaded wildlife conservation efforts across Southern California.

Natalie Queally

​Postdoctoral Researcher

nqueally[at]ucla.edu

Natalie uses imaging spectroscopy and other remote sensing technologies to understand how vegetation responds and adapts to our changing world. She received her PhD in 2024 in forest ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she investigated hyperspectral image processing techniques and used plant functional trait data derived from imaging spectroscopy to explore drought and grazing impacts in California. At UCLA she is exploring the integration of remote sensing data into vegetation and wildfire modeling frameworks. She spends her free time hiking, birding, and photographing nature.

Ary Sanchez Amaya

Ary Amaya

​MSc Student

arycamaya[at]gmail.com

Ary is an Indigenous ecologist originally from the pueblos of Santiago Ixcuintla and Amatlán de Jora, Nayarit, MX. She is interested in the integration of Indigenous ecological knowledge systems and western understandings of plant community ecology. Her research aims to address the effects of climate change on urban terrestrial ecosystems using remote sensing, ecological niche modeling, and traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge.

Morgan Dean

​PhD Student

morgandean[at]g.ucla.com

Morgan is interested in upscaling LiDAR data to explore the relationships between tropical forest structure, environmental factors, and function. To do so, she utilizes machine learning and large, high-dimensional datasets acquired across remote sensing systems. She is also interested in evaluating how spatial properties influence her upscaled predictions and in quantifying the uncertainty of these models.

Deranek

Carissa DeRanek

​​PhD Student

caderanek[at]g.ucla.com

Carissa will be studying the impacts of drought, habitat fragmentation, and fire on forest structure and function. She is excited to bring interdisciplinary approaches to analyzing the distribution of plant traits across spatial and temporal scales. Carissa is also looking forward to getting involved in the teaching programs at UCLA in order to continue building her skills in education and to be engaged with the broader LA community.

Anna Ongjoco

​​PhD Student

annajongjoco[at]g.ucla.com

Anna is a Ph.D student, co-advised by Dr. Elsa Ordway at UCLA and Dr. Leander Anderegg at UCSB. She received an M.S. and a B.S. in Biological Science at Cal Poly Pomona, where she studied the ecophysiology of two native pine species in the San Bernardino Mountains. Currently, her work focuses on understanding the water-use strategies of three California native oak species and how they will respond to more frequent and intense droughts. Anna aims to advance the understanding of the coordination of hydraulic function and carbon metabolism using both in situ field measurements and remote sensing to shed light on the physiological mechanisms that underpin drought induced mortality.

Hannah Stouter

Hannah Stouter

PhD Student

hstouter[at]g.ucla.edu

Hannah is interested in studying issues at the intersection of conservation biology and political ecology. Specifically, she is interested in using an interdisciplinary lens to study the impacts of protected areas on biodiversity and local communities. In addition, she wants to explore the role political, economic, and cultural structures play in the creation of protected areas. Moving to LA from the east coast, Hannah is excited to spend time outside, hiking, backpacking, and exploring the west.

Nidhi Vinod

Nidhi Vinod

​PhD Student
​nidrup[at]gmail.com

​Nidhi is interested in the functions, physiology and ecology of plants. For her PhD she hopes to link the understanding of leaves and plants at a small scale from lab experiments and data to understanding forests and ecosystems at a large scale through remote sensing. In thinking about connecting plant physiology to understanding large scale forest functioning, she is also excited about the intersection between people, plants and forests, and hopes to collaborate across disciplines to think through these topics together.

Ellin Zhao

​PhD Student
​ellinz[at]ucla.edu

Ellin is a Ph.D. student at UCLA, formally studying computational imaging and computer vision. She is interested in developing methods to extract ecological traits from multi-modal remote sensing data, particularly in data-limited contexts. Outside of research, Ellin enjoys baking and hanging out with cats! Learn more about Ellin here: https://ellinz.com/

Mark Avila

​Undergraduate Researcher

Alcen Chiu

​Undergraduate Researcher

Miles Dailey

Miles Dailey

​Undergraduate Researcher

Miles is a second-year Computational and Systems Biology major who is interested in the intersection of technology and ecological data. He is looking forward to applying his knowledge of programming to the processing and analysis of remote sensing data, specifically through the use of machine learning and computer vision. Outside of the lab, Miles also enjoys competing on the UCLA Club Swim team and backpacking in his home state of Washington.

Lindsay Land

​Undergraduate Researcher

Justine Pendergraft

​Undergraduate Researcher

Justine is a third year Computer Science and Engineering major who is interested in applying engineering to help study and address environmental issues. She enjoys interdisciplinary topics, and loves to learn about remote sensing, machine learning, robotics, drones, and forest ecology. In her free time, she likes to camp, stargaze, and play the oboe.

Nate Trux

​Undergraduate Researcher

Lab Alumni