People
People in their own words
Dr. Colin J Gleason
Dr. Colin J Gleason is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his PhD at UCLA in Geography in 2016. He focuses on translating process based hydrology and geochemistry to global scales through extensive Arctic fieldwork, satellite data processing, and geomorphically informed modelling and data assimilation. He is an NSF CAREER awardee, a NASA New Investigator, the Director for Calibration and Validation of U.S. Inland Hydrology for the upcoming NASA SWOT satellite, and member of the Science Teams for NASA’s SWOT and High Mountain Asia programs. He builds wooden canoes and enjoys board games with complicated rules, being snobby about tea, and gardening.
Dr. Taylor Rowley, PhD
Taylor Rowley is a research fellow and the lead technician for the NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) calibration and validation team. Taylor received her PhD from Louisiana State University where she studied the shapes and interactions between meander bends and point bars using high-resolution field monitoring techniques (i.e., multibeam sonar, lidar, UAVs, ADCP, and GPR). During and after her PhD, she worked for USGS as a hydrologist in both Louisiana and North Carolina where her research focused on geospatial analysis of rivers morphology from reach to CONUS watershed scales. Taylor is happiest when integrating science with physical labor, pattern detecting, and sharing her passions with others. She has surveyed rivers across the country and is eager to expand her collection leading the cal/val effort. Beyond work, Taylor can be found riding her bike, skiing, climbing, and chasing clouds.
Craig Brinkerhoff, PhD student
Craig Brinkerhoff is a PhD candidate working under Dr. Colin Gleason. He received his Bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Environmental Science and Geography in 2018. His research interests are in coupling fluvial geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and hydrography via large-to-global scale modeling and remote sensing of river networks. In his spare time, Craig enjoys trail running, cycling, and music.
Wenwen Tang, PhD student
Wenwen Tang is pursuing a PhD in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. They graduated in 2022 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Southern California. They hope to contribute to our scientific understanding of rivers and Earth systems. Wenwen also enjoys reading, music, and going on walks.
Ellie Friedmann, PhD student
Elisa Friedmann is pursuing a PhD in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She previously earned a B.S. in Biochemistry with a Certificate in Environment and Sustainability as well as a B.A. in Plan II Honors at the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, she spent four years as a multiday river guide, conservation writer, and citizen scientist water quality monitor. She hopes to improve our knowledge concerning water quality and quantity in large rivers using remote sensing products, especially in the Arctic. Ellie also enjoys whitewater kayaking, skiing, traveling, and jigsaw puzzles.
Jonathan Flores, PhD student
Jonathan Flores is a PhD student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Colin Gleason. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from Cavite State University (Philippines) and his Master’s degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from Washington State University as a Fulbright scholar. His research interest revolves around hydrology and remote sensing with particular emphasis on measuring river discharge and water quality in large drainage basins using remotely sensed data. He also aims to explore the applications of NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) in understanding the dynamics of terrestrial waters in the Southeast Asian region. Jonathan enjoys watching football, playing basketball and mobile games, reading, and programming.
Travis Simmons, Software Engineer
Travis Simmons is a research fellow and the lead software engineer for the NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) cloud processing pipelines (Confluence). Travis received training in data analytics, remote sensing, and plant biology at the College of Coastal Georgia. Travis then worked as a Research Data Support Specialist at the University of Arizona, where he created machine learning based data analytics pipelines for the world's largest plant phenotyping robot. Travis loves to get excited about science with his collaborators, and leverage his background in computing to help bring their ideas to fruition. Outside of work, Travis loves to play blues music, read, and play video games.
Yuta Ishitsuka, PhD student
Yuta Ishitsuka is currently working with Prof. Colin Gleason as a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degree from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan. He developed the operational global/regional flood forecasting system implemented in the national server of Japan for his three years of engineering research, and is now seeking the possibility of the fusion of global flood forecasting and remotely sensed datasets. His interests lie in the field of global land surface modeling, hydrological prediction, and data assimilation. He loves traveling, trekking, snowboarding,and Japanese video-games.
Alumni
Liaqat Karim
Liaqat joined Fluvial@UMass in Summer of 2017 to pursue an exciting project assessing the impact of increased road construction on glacial melt in his native Pakistan. He is currently employed in his home country seeking the betterment of its natural resources.
Dr. Mark Hagemann, PhD
Dr. Mark Hagemann received his PhD from UMass in 2016, and worked as a post-doc here for one and a half years. He is now in industry
Dr. Dongmei Feng, PhD
Dongmei Feng was a post-doc research associate at Fluvial@UMass Group, and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati. Her current research interests focus on surface hydrology, fluvial hydrology and hydrologic modeling, and she seeks to develop novel methods and integrate the state-of-art remotely-sensed data products to improve hydrologic process representation. Before joining UMass, she received the doctorate degree from Northeastern University in 2018, and she received the Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Tongji University in 2013 and 2010 in Shanghai.
Nikki Tebaldi, Software Engineer
Nikki Tebaldi was a software engineer with the Fluvial@UMass group. She is now an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labratory
Dr. Merritt Harlan, PhD
Merritt Harlan is currently USGS Mendenhall Fellow studying remote sensing of rivers in Denver, CO.