People

Dr. Jonathan Thompson is a Senior Ecologist and Research Director at the Harvard Forest, a department of Harvard University. His research focuses on long-term and broad-scale changes in forest ecosystems, with an emphasis on quantifying how land use - including harvest, conversion, and land protection - affects forest ecosystem processes and services. He is the Principal Investigator for the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and involving more than 100 scientists and students investigating the dynamics of the New England landscape. He also leads the New England Landscape Futures project, which collaborates with diverse stakeholders from throughout the region to build and evaluate scenarios that show how land-use choices and climate change could shape the landscape over the next 50 years. Thompson holds a PhD in Forest Ecology (2008) and a MS in Forest Policy (2004) from Oregon State University. 

CV

Xiaojie Gao (goes by the shorter pronunciation "J" in daily life) is a new postdoc at the Thompson lab. He received a B.S. degree in GIS from Chengdu University of Technology, China, and an M.E. degree in natural resources and environmental remote sensing as a joint graduate student from Chengdu University of Technology and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This summer, he got his Ph.D. from Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, with his dissertation research focusing on investigating the chilling effect on urban plant spring phenology. Broadly, he is interested in understanding how climate change affects large-scale carbon balances of plant ecosystems, especially forests, and how our human society can maintain a sustainable environment. He enjoys programming and is fascinated by advanced technologies in remote sensing, GIS, and computer science. Besides research, he likes running, playing guitar, and singing. 

Josh Plisinski is a Research Assistant and GIS Technician in the lab.

Danelle Laflower is a Research Assistant and Lab Manager in the lab.  She uses simulation models and long-term data to understand how forests grow and change.  

Lucy Lee is a research assistant in the lab. She uses her background in GIS to research and communicate about land use in New England, with a focus on protected areas and land conservation.

Matthew Duveneck, former Thompson Lab Postdoc, is a Research Associate with the lab.

HF website

New England Conservatory website

Meg Graham MacLean, former Thompson Lab Postdoc, is a Research Associate with the lab and a Quantitative Ecologist at UMass - Amherst.

Website

Luca Morreale, former lab Research Assistant, is an Associate with the lab and a Postdoc at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Valerie Pasquarella is a Researcher with the lab and a Research Scientist at Google.

Alexey Kalinin, former Thompson Lab Postdoc, is a research associate with the lab. 

Joe Tumber-Dávila, former Harvard Forest LTER Postdoc, is a Research Associate with the lab and an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College.

Website

Yuqi Song is a postdoctoral fellow of the Salata Institute and she works with Thompson Lab on research related to Nature-based Solution (NbS) for Climate, studying how actions of protecting, improving management and restoration of forests contribute to climate mitigation. 

Nikolaus Bates-Haus is a collaborator with the lab. He is a visiting scholar at Harvard Forest. Nik's background is in machine learning, data processing, and distributed systems; he is currently researching models of carbon storage in temperate forests.

Mayra Rodriguez González is an REU alumni, REU mentor, and collaborator in the lab.

Website

Alumni

Brian Hall was a GIS Research Assistant at Harvard Forest.

Lauren Hollinger was a 2024 REU student working with Josh and Lucy.

Casey Helton was a 2024 REU student working with Xiaojie and Danelle.

Elijah McGill wrote his senior thesis (2024 Harvard University) with the lab. His research focuses on land ownership and species composition in Maine forests.

Maegan Beckage (University of Vermont) was a 2023 REU student in the lab.

Ben Baraga (Pomona College) was a 2023 REU student in the lab.

Coral del mar Valle Rodriguez was a 2021 summer REU student in the lab.  

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