Principal Investigator (PI)
Pinki Mondal
Dr. Mondal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware and a Resident Faculty at the UD Data Science Institute. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at UD. She is an interdisciplinary scientist interested in the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems with training in environmental remote sensing and Geographic Information Science (GIS). She is particularly interested in developing geospatial methods for landscape-level monitoring and assessments. Her research interests span over a diverse set of environmental issues, including: agriculture, climate, diet, and nutrition. Her current research focuses on climate change impacts and adaptation in the developing countries.
Prior to joining UD, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor in the Spitzer School of Architecture at City University of New York - City College. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the DeFries Lab at Columbia University, New York and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has a Ph.D. in Land Change Science from the University of Florida (Go Gators!!).
Email: mondalp@udel.edu; Twitter: @environmondal; Google Scholar
Dr. Mondal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware and a Resident Faculty at the UD Data Science Institute. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at UD. She is an interdisciplinary scientist interested in the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems with training in environmental remote sensing and Geographic Information Science (GIS). She is particularly interested in developing geospatial methods for landscape-level monitoring and assessments. Her research interests span over a diverse set of environmental issues, including: agriculture, climate, diet, and nutrition. Her current research focuses on climate change impacts and adaptation in the developing countries.
Prior to joining UD, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - a center within the Earth Institute at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor in the Spitzer School of Architecture at City University of New York - City College. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the DeFries Lab at Columbia University, New York and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has a Ph.D. in Land Change Science from the University of Florida (Go Gators!!).
Email: mondalp@udel.edu; Twitter: @environmondal; Google Scholar
Graduate Students
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Matthieu Ahouangbenon, PhD student
Matthieu Jean-Claude Ahouangbenon was born in Benin. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Abomey-Calavi and obtained his first MSc degree from the Geographic Institution of Land Management at the university of Abomey-Calavi. From serving as a GIS spatial analyst agent to working as a residence manager and a volunteer, he built a scientific career grounded in leadership and expertise. He pursued his second MSc degree as a Fulbright alumnus at the State University of New York, college of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, where he worked on the projected impacts of climate change on maize, millet and rice in West Africa, employing a GIS/remote sensing based approach. Currently, he is engaging in his PhD degree at the University of Delaware where he plans to focus on the applications of remote sensing in agriculture. He joined the EASEL lab in Fall 2020. E-mail: mathdel@udel.edu |
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Dustin Braden, MS student
Dustin joined the EASEL lab in Spring 2021. He received his BA in Environmental Studies and Geography from Ohio Wesleyan University. Dustin is passionate about pairing GIS and environmental science with communications in order to make science more accessible to the communities who need it most. Before joining EASEL, Dustin's work included research on urban gardens and food access, drone monitoring of vegetation health, and work with Citizen Science GIS. As an EASEL lab member Dustin is working on a NASA-funded project to analyze and compare tree cover datasets of Mexican forests. E-mail: dsbraden@udel.edu |
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Matthew Walter, PhD student
Matt joined the EASEL lab in Fall 2018. He has a BA in Environmental Studies with concentration in Environmental Planning and minor in Public Policy, a Graduate GIS Certificate, and an MS in Geography. He is interested in using GIS and remote sensing as tools to monitor the impact of humans on natural and built environments and inform the decision-making process in public policy. He has experience in applying machine learning techniques, multispectral and SAR remote sensing imagery, geospatial analysis, and environmental field work. His research so far has covered topics such as wetland degradation, land cover changes, and invasive species mapping. As a PhD student at the University of Delaware, he plans to apply geospatial tools to researching sustainability within cities. E-mail: mswalter@udel.edu |
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Vishruta Yawatkar, MS student
Vishruta joined the EASEL lab in Fall 2019. Her previous research projects involved work on topics like animal behavior, bioacoustics, and molecular phylogeny. These projects gave her opportunities to study large data sets and learn about different techniques for analysis of image, video, acoustic as well as genetic data. She is particularly interested in implementing data science techniques to do interdisciplinary research. As an EASEL lab member, she is working on an NSF-funded EPSCoR project on saltwater intrusion in the Delmarva Peninsula using remote sensing and GIS tools and techniques. E-mail: vyawatka@udel.edu |
Undergraduate Students
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Isabella Ventimiglia
Isabella is a Geography major with a concentration in Geospatial Techniques, a minor in Public Health, and a Graduate GIS Certificate. She has an interest in studying hazard mitigation using GIS and remote sensing techniques. She is currently studying rice farming in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. As a part of a larger interdisciplinary team, she is examining the shifting rice farming trends using different machine-learning techniques. E-mail: ijventi@udel.edu |
EASEL Lab Alumni
