Leah Andino
Master of Forest Science
The redwood trees of California, Leah’s home state, inspired her pursuit of forest science! She mainly studied climatology in her undergraduate years at the University of California, Los Angeles and conducted climate research in extreme environments such as Antarctica. In her master’s research, Leah hopes to combine her love of climatology and trees by studying leaf traits in Puerto Rico’s moist limestone forest and how they relate to climate change. The goal is to figure out if there are leaf traits or adaptations already present in the forest trees that may be advantageous in our changing climate.
Ruolin (“Eudora”) Miao
Master of Forest Science
Coming from Sichuan, southwest China, Eudora loves the spicy food, mountains, and the fantastic biodiversity of her home province. She developed a passion for trees and restoration during her reforestation service in Costa Rica and land stewardship work in Wisconsin. She is in the initial stage of developing her master’s research, and hope that her research will inform practices in reforestation.
Austin Dziki
Master of Forestry
Austin studied Biological Sciences at the University of Vermont where he conducted a study on evolutionary relationships in the Caribbean as a result of island biogeography and conducted further research in behavioral ecology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He became more interested in forest ecology through his work as a research assistant for Mark Ashton at the Yale School Forests. Now a Master student at Yale, he spent a his summer field season as a research fellow at the University of Rwanda connecting his background in island biogeography and behavioral ecology to forest ecology by studying the edge effect on the regeneration of large-seeded, animal dispersed tree species in a small forest fragment. He is interested in further integrating seed dispersal and regeneration dynamics into natural regeneration strategies for forest restoration.