Our Affiliates are senior-level scientists, journalists, communicators, and artists. While not employed through INSTAAR, they work closely with INSTAAR researchers on a wide range of climate and environmental science projects, art-science collaborations, and public engagement. Prospective affiliates should contact individual INSTAAR Fellows to explore potential partnerships.
Ecological restoration in wetlands and post-flood riparian areas; monitoring long-term results of volunteer restoration projects; erosion control with native species in Ecuadorian cloud forest.
James Balog has been a leader in photographing, understanding and interpreting the natural environment for three decades. To reveal the impact of climate change, James founded the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the most wide-ranging, ground-based, photographic study of glaciers ever conducted. National Geographic showcased this work in June 2007 and June 2010 issues. The project is also featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary Extreme Ice and in the 2012 feature-length documentary Chasing Ice.
Creation of lake-based records of climate change in the western United States; response of prehistoric Native American cultures to climate change; application of cosmogenic isotopes to the dating of glacial features in the Rocky Mountains.
Geochemistry, recent paleoclimate, Cenozoic oceanography, climate variability of arid regions, desert dust, earth history.
Terrestrial ecosystems, their responses to climate change, feedbacks that amplify or mitigate climate change, and human perturbations in land cover, land use, and ecosystem functions that alter climate. Development of and experimentation with coupled models of Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere system.
Integrated ecological assessments; conservation, ecosystem, landscape, and plant ecology; conservation and land use planning; ecosystem management; biogeography; statistical and numerical modeling; biological diversity; ecological classification and mapping; technology transfer; strategic planning for science and conservation programs; communication outreach; managing system and organizational change.
Peter Brannen is a science journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Wired, and The Guardian among other publications. His book, The Ends of the World, about the five major mass extinctions in Earth’s history, was published in 2017 by Ecco. Peter was a 2018 Scripps Fellow at CU Boulder. He is particularly interested in paleoclimate, geochemistry, the carbon cycle, and ocean science.
Interactions between the biosphere and the cycling of water, energy, and biogeochemicals, primarily carbon and nutrients.
Burko locates her practice at the intersection of art and science. In 2006, her concern for the future of our environment and issues of climate change led her to develop series of ongoing projects. She develops visual strategies in paintings and photography using historical comparisons of global glacial change through repeat photography, Landsat maps, and other visual data to help explain earth science to the public. Her work confronts issues of geological and chronological time—past, present, and future.
Open pit mines: pit lake analysis, predictive modeling, and closure planning. Mine water management, tailings management, contaminant source control, and water treatment.
Dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry.
Terrestrial ecosystem ecology and soil biogeochemistry. In general, his research focuses on understanding the biotic and abiotic controls over terrestrial biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem processes.
Environmental microbiology and geochemistry. Investigates drivers and relicts of microbial evolution, focusing on the metabolically diverse bacteria of low energy subsurface marine sediments.
Glacial and climate history of mountainous areas in New England, western North America, and Baffin Island.
Arctic archeology; Paleoindian archeology; Quaternary paleoecology; high altitude-high latitude adaptations; museum studies.
Unsaturated flow and soil physics, surface water/groundwater interaction, hillslope hydrology and runoff generation, near-surface hydrologic response simulation, landslide and debris flow initiation, preferential flow, quantitative model performance evaluation, and post-wildfire hydrology.
Geochemistry, clay mineralogy, X-ray diffraction, crystal growth.
Quaternary insect fossils, paleoecology, paleoclimatology.
Glacier hydrology
Quaternary stratigraphy, glacial geology, paleoclimatology.
Ecosystem functioning and ecological community structure: the distribution of species abundances, biomass and interactions in ecological networks.
Palynology, pollen transport and deposition, pollination biology, long-distance transport of biological material, airborne fungal spores.
Mountain geomorphology and climate change; soils and rock; glaciers and permafrost.
River mechanics, erosion and sedimentation, hydraulics, geosciences, surface hydrology.
Working with EcoArts Connections to bring together people from all walks of life to understand the realities of climate change and celebrate the delights of sustainability – in transformative programs sparked by the arts.
Microbial ecology, soil microbiology, biogeochemistry
Ecohydrology; Micrometeorology; Biogeochemistry; Earth System Science
Josh Koch’s research focuses on hydrology and biogeochemistry in cold regions. He studies surface water/groundwater interactions, preferential flow and runoff mechanisms, and the impact of permafrost presence and thaw on hydrology, biogeochemistry, and aquatic ecosystems.
Environmental and travel photography; Design, marketing, communications; Project management
Glaciology, hydrology and climate in high mountain areas of the world.
Terrestrial ecosystem ecology, nutrient cycling and linkages between elements, ecosystem responses to environmental change.
Determining the biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystem-level carbon and energy balance across spatial and temporal scales.
Coastal geomorphology, geoarchaeology, northwest Alaska prehistory.
The development of fisheries policies for high-latitude regions, where the impacts of global warming and climatic change are forecast to be especially severe; fishing communities and fisheries management.
Quantifying the the relationships between water quality, hydrology, land use, and climate at watershed, regional, and national scales. Development of modeling tools that improve process understanding of integrated terrestrial-aquatic systems.
Plant community ecology and watershed biogeochemistry, particularly in alpine environments.
Surface and ground water quality; aquatic biogeochemistry; atmospheric deposition and organic aerosols; water and sustainability in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Development of novel remote sensing systems for Earth Science, particularly via imaging radar and interferometry for mapping terrain, water, snow, and ice-covered surfaces.
Geomorphology, soils, and stratigraphy to reconstruct paleoclimates over the past two and a half million years of geologic time.
Research focuses on the characterization of the hydrology and water chemistry of watersheds and how they are affected by both natural factors and disturbance.
Glacier-climate interactions and sea level rise; small glaciers; glacier-generated seismicity; photogrammetry.
Aviva Rahmani is an ecological artist who works with scientists to design solutions for degraded environments.
Intersections of urban health, climate change and community capacity building.
Development of dry landscapes and ecosystems through understanding interactions among geologic, ecologic, and climatic processes; geologic, biologic, and human controls on dust generation; Quaternary climate and evolution of landscapes in response to climatic change; environmental magnetism; chemical and magnetic records of pollution in sediments and mineral dust.
Soil science, ecology, and biogeochemistry, particularly the cycling of elements within natural systems and the response of these cycles to changing climate and atmospheric deposition.
Currently working on R&D projects concerned with flood inundation modeling, floodplain mapping, and current and potential satellite missions for hydrology.
Ecosystem ecology, plant community ecology, biogeochemistry, landscape ecology
Ecology, plant biodiversity.
I’m a paleobiologist who uses the fossil record to study the evolution and ecology of insects. As a former faculty member and museum curator, I am quite passionate about specimens, data access, education and outreach. It’s important to me that we work together to build a more diverse and inclusive STEM workforce.
I am an ecologist and my work focuses on understanding the processes that control patterns in biodiversity. This includes visiting and collecting data from diverse ecosystems as well using computer models to simulate and predict how metacommunity dynamics can be linked to diversity outcomes.
Stable isotopy; paleoenvironmental and climate reconstructions; palynology.
Water chemistry and trace element analysis.
Soil geography and geomorphology.
Hydrologist with extensive experience in mountain hydrology, snow physics, remote sensing, water resources engineering, data analysis, and field work in extreme environments.
Radiocarbon: high precision measurement; atmospheric applications, carbon cycle, fossil fuel emission quantification, urban anthropogenic emissions, modelling, and more.
Climate scientist, educator, videographer, ice climber.
Atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric trace gas measurements, biosphere-atmosphere interactions
Snow and vadose zone hydrology.
Tidewater glacier dynamics, geographic information systems (GIS), photography, photogrammetry, computer vision.
Wildfire impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystems, coupling of ecological and engineered infrastructure, fate and transport of emerging contaminants.