Background:
I
received my B.A. from St. Olaf College in 2003 with majors in Environmental
Studies, Biology, and English. I spent the year after graduation working
at St. Olaf in the Department of Information and Instructional Technologies
as the Macintosh Specialist. Currently, I am a Ph. D. student in the
Kelly Lab at U.C. Berkeley.
Research
Sprawl
and the general pace of development across the world concern me greatly.
Beginning with a family trip to Costa Rica, I took a particular interest
in habitat fragmentation and how to mitigate its detrimental effects
on biodiversity and ecosystem stability. The development of habitat
corridors is a solution which I find promising.
Furthermore,
I am interested in the role of computers in conservation efforts.
Over the past three years, I have used geographic information systems
(GIS) extensively, from modeling wildfire to recommending conservation
plans. While GIS is certainly not an end in itself, it is an important
tool to ecologists and conservation biologists as the scale of environmental
problems continues to increase.
As human
population continues to expand and its demands increase, we will
find our interests conflicting with the well being of the natural
world more and more often. To alleviate the pressures on all interested
parties, we will need to develop an effective system of collaborative
decision-making. In this system, I would like to see myself as both
citizen-expert and interpreter. Too often the marvels of modern ecology
and conservation biology sit in the pages of refereed journals, unknown
to the general public. In addition to my own research, I would like
to "interpret" both the basics and the breakthroughs in the
field to encourage a broader eco-consciousness among the populace.
Currently,
my research interests are focused on the effects of patch size and
corridors on the growth of trees. I am looking to marry a field-based
approach to data gathering with the database management inherent
in GIS. Through this combination of old techniques and new technology,
I hope to find new methods for conserving open spaces in the face
of human development.
I am a 2007 ASPRS GeoEye Awardee.
Contact Information:
Tim
De Chant
University of California, Berkeley
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
145 Mulford Hall, #3114
Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
dechant@nature.berkeley.edu
510.642.8322 phone
510.642.1477 fax
