Maggi Kelly - Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist
Maggi has been at UC Berkeley since 1999 as a Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist. Her working life is dedicated to all things geospatial. She loves maps! She works to bring cutting-edge mapping technology, training, and research support to the ANR and UC network of students, staff, faculty, and the public. Her group of students, staff, and postdocs (from UC Berkeley and UCANR) use a range of geospatial analysis approaches using data from numerous sources - spatial models, remote sensing, drones, lidar, historical archives, surveys, participatory mapping, and the field - to gain insights about how and why California landscapes are changing, and what that change means for those who live on, use, cherish, and manage our lands. The spatial data science field is evolving quickly, and Maggi actively works to build community around applied geospatial research and outreach locally at UC Berkeley and across the state. She is Faculty Director of the UCB Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) and Director of the ANR Statewide Program in Informatics and Geographic Information Systems (IGIS), both of which are dedicated to research, outreach and service in support of applied geospatial data and analysis.
Chloe Faehndrich, graduate researcher with IGIS
Chloe is a PhD student at UC Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Chloe’s research is centered around water, climate, and land use change. She is specifically interested in how climate and land use change can act as drivers of poor water quality in the San Francisco Estuary. Chloe utilizes geospatial technology, including satellite remote sensing, in her research and has experience working in R, Python, ArcGIS, and Google Earth Engine. Before starting her PhD at UC Berkeley, Chloe studied at Skidmore College where she received degrees in Environmental Science and Spanish. She engaged in research spanning a variety of environmental topics from harmful algal bloom dynamics, to wind energy implementation, to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes. Chloe is excited to be a part of the IGIS team to continue using the geospatial skills she has developed to assess more environmental-related research questions.
Jasper Andrews, undergrad researcher with IGIS
Jasper is an undergraduate senior at UC Berkeley, studying Data Science and Ecosystem Management & Forestry. He has interests in leveraging data science and GIS to improve natural resource management and sociotechnical systems. Previously, Jasper has worked in forestry, sustainable development and ecological restoration. He has conducted undergraduate research into deep learning methods for precise tree detection in agricultural fields, as well as statistical research into the primary drivers of global mangrove forest loss. In his undergraduate education, he has become sufficient in programming, data science methods, GIS analysis, forest and wildfire management, and statistics/probability theory.
Former Kellylab Graduate Students (18)
Annie Taylor, ESPM-UCB. 2024. “Mapping with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band: Supporting Indigenous ecological stewardship and cultural relationships with land using spatial data science”
Chippie Kislik, ESPM-UCB. 2022. “The Good, the Bad, the Algae: Using High Resolution Imagery to Detect Freshwater Algal Blooms in California”
Christine Wilkinson, PhD. ESPM-UCB. 2021. “Life Finds a Way: Carnivore Movement and Conflict in Developing Landscapes”
Kelly Easterday, PhD. ESPM-UCB. 2018. “Historical legacies shape contemporary forests and woodlands: a study of California landscapes integrating historical and modern ecological data”
Jenny Palomino, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with M Potts). 2018. “Spatial Data Science for addressing environmental challenges in the 21st century”
Anu Kramer, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with Scott Stephens). 2016: “Not seeing the forest for the points: Novel LiDAR metrics elucidate forest structure”
Shufei Lei, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with Alastair Illes). 2014: "Mapping Webs of Information, Conversation, and Social Connections: Evaluating the Mechanics of Collaborative Adaptive Management in the Sierra Nevada Forests”
Miriam Tsalyuk, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with Wayne Getz). 2014: “The Effect of Landscape Parameters on African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Movement Decisions”
Sarah Lewis, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2013: “Geospatial strategies to optimize placement of advanced biofuels in marginal landscapes”
Marek Jakubowski, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2012: “Using lidar in wildfire ecology of the California Sierra-Nevada forests”
Lisa Schile, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2012: “Tidal Wetland Vegetation in the San Francisco Bay Estuary: Modeling Species Distributions with Sea-Level Rise”
Shasta Ferranto, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with Lynn Huntsinger). 2012: “Land use change in the working landscapes of California”
Esther Zeledon, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2010: “The Effect of War and Its Aftermath on Land Use and Land Cover in Jinotega Nicaragua”
Tim DeChant, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2009: “Merging tree physiology and landscape ecology: examining the effects of urbanization on California’s oak woodlands”
Karin Tuxen, Ph.D. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2007: “Functional mapping of wetland vegetation for monitoring and management”
Desheng Liu, Ph.D. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2006: “Spatio-temporal modeling and mapping of Sudden Oak Death in California”
Qinghua Guo, Ph.D. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with J. Battles). 2005: “Development of geospatial techniques for ecological analysis: A case study of Sudden Oak Death in California”
Kristin Byrd, PhD. ESPM-UCB. Advisor. 2005: “Temporal and Spatial Linkages between Watershed Land Use and Wetland Vegetation Response in the Elkhorn Slough Watershed, Monterey County, California”
Former Kellylab Postdoctoral Scholars
Roxy Cruz, 2020-2024; Alice Kelly 2013-2016; Patrick McIntyre 2012-2014; Jessica O’Connell 2012-2013; Feng Zhao 2010-2012; Lina Cao 2010-2011; Oliver Sonnentag 2008-2011; Yinan He 2018-2020
Former Kellylab Masters Students
Matt Wacker, M.S. ESPM-UCB. Graduate Advisor. Graduated Fall 2002. Thesis: “Land use vegetation change on El Dorado County, CA rangelands: implications for rangeland conservation.” Currently Land Steward at Marin Agricultural Land Trust
Travis Freed, M. S. ESPM-UCB. Co-Advisor (with S. Stephens)
Former Kellylab Undergraduate Students
Sophie Kolding, Jonah Lipsitt, John Dingman, Susan Nawbury, Andrea Kristof, Daniel Song, Hannah Lopez, Cam Kees, Ben Satzman
Former Kellylab Visitors
Proxima DasMohapatra, Ovidiu Csillik, Lauren Heumann, Jose Pena-Barragan, Celia Garcia, Alessandro Montaghi, Ken-ichi Ueda, Oscar Fernandez-Manso, Travis Freed, Faith Kearns, Javier Lozano, Jie Pei, Wanxiao Sun
Former Kellylab Staff
Stefania Di Tomasso, Jason Su, Sam Blanchard, John Connors, Brent Pedersen, Casey Cleve, Elsie Windes, Julian Metcalf, Mindy Syfert, Lauren McGee, Eric Waller, David Shaari, Henna Chou