Below is the list of graduate student mentors and a brief description of their research and opportunities to participate. Please see the mentoring program page for details about the program format and goals. This list is updated at the beginning of each semester (sometimes more frequently). If you are interested in a position, you can contact the graduate student directly, providing them with a brief introduction and a resume. You may also reach out to envisci-mentoring@virginia.edu if you have any questions.
Graduate students: If you would like to update or add to this page, please contact Willow Lovecky, or Will Loner at envisci-mentoring@virginia.edu
Revisited August 2026
Who: Savannah Atchley (zmv4ah@virginia.edu)
What: I am looking for undergraduate volunteers to assist with a salt marsh research project examining changes in vegetation and soil characteristics over time. This is an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with ecological research methods, including processing vegetation samples and sediment cores, while learning laboratory techniques used to quantify biomass, organic matter, porosity, and bulk density. No prior experience is necessary, and training will be provided.
Openings: 1-2 students
When: Fall 2026 / Spring 2027
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Tierney Cantwell (qba3vp@virginia.edu)
What: Student assistance needed for dried grass sample sorting. Harvested from Morven Farm plots during this past summer's NASA AIST campaign. This work will be largely self-directed but will meet biweekly as needed.
Openings: 1-2 students
When: Fall 2026
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Chris Oxley (ewc5gu@virginia.edu)
What: My project focuses on how parasitic sponges impact the tidal distribution of oysters in high salinity ecosystems. Students will use the program Qupath to analyze photographs of oyster shells, measuring their size and how infested they are with a parasitc sponge. Work can be performed in person or remotely and requires no previous experience.
Openings: 1-3 students
When: Fall 2026 / Spring 2027
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Stephanie Petrovick (dwv4dj@virginia.edu)
What: Four projects (see below)
(1) Processing samples for foliar nutrient concentration. This consists of a set number of work hours per week (negotiable based on student’s availability) where the student grinds foliar samples to powder, stores them, and then once all the samples are processed, packages them into tins for nutrient analysis. Instruction and help will be provided. (Fall 2026)
(2) Sorting and weighing dried biomass samples into plant functional groups. Instruction on plant identification and the rest of the process will be provided. (Fall 2026 and Spring 2027)
(3) Database work, specifically collecting and working on plant trait data for specific species using the TRY database. (Fall 2026)
(4) Work for one student identifying and cataloguing seedlings in a greenhouse experiment. Instruction on plant identification and the rest of the process will be provided. (Fall 2026 and Spring 2027)
Openings: 4-5 students
When: Fall 2026 / Spring 2027
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Meara Tolentino (ekm9tu@virginia.edu)
What: My project focuses on identifying the spatial and temporal patterns of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM), which indicate the source and quality of the organic carbon entering coastal lagoons. We will be using a spectrophotometer to obtain the full spectrum of water samples collected from the Eastern Shore. From the spectrum, we will then extract measurements of CDOM and other parameters that will tell more about where the carbon originated from and how it interacts within the ecosystem.
Openings: 3-4 students
When: Spring 2027
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Caitlin Zimmer (rps5jw@virginia.edu)
What: My project is evaluating what primary producer resources (seagrass leaves, benthic microalgae, phytoplankton, marsh detritus, and macroalgae) hard clams are relying on, and how this changes across the landscape in the Virginia Coast Reserve.
Openings: 1-2 students
When: Fall 2026
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer
Who: Amanda Armstrong (amanda.h.armstrong@nasa.gov)
What: Three ongoing projects, some of which could possibly be developed into NASA summer internships in the future as well as manuscripts. How deeply a student might delve into any of them would probably be dependent on whether they have any python knowledge and/or knowledge of gap models and remote sensing. They are all adaptable based on skills and age/experience.
(1) Simulating timber harvest, recovery, and climate sensitivity in southeastern U.S. forests. This project would extend a spatially-explicit individual-based modeling framework to managed forests in Georgia by parameterizing representative southeastern tree species and simulating alternative timber-harvest strategies, such as clearcutting, thinning, selective harvest, and different harvest intensities or rotation lengths. The student would compare post-harvest recovery trajectories in forest structure, aboveground biomass, carbon storage, species composition, and structural or functional diversity, first under historical climate conditions and then under selected CMIP6 future climate scenarios. A particularly useful question would be whether different management strategies produce similar biomass recovery while leading to very different trajectories of composition and biodiversity. The project could therefore evaluate tradeoffs among timber production, carbon recovery, and ecological resilience while also testing how transferable the model is from relatively unmanaged temperate and boreal systems to intensively managed southeastern forests.
(2) GEDI-based calibration and validation of forest structure across National Forest sites. This project would cal/val and finish existing spatially-explicit individual-based model parameterizations at one of four previously selected National Forest study sites by comparing simulated forest vertical structure with GEDI observations. The student would initialize or run the model using the current site-specific parameterization, derive model outputs corresponding as closely as possible to remotely sensed metrics—such as canopy height, height distributions, canopy cover, vertical complexity, and potentially biomass—and compare these with GEDI waveform-derived canopy metrics and canopy-height products. The work could identify which aspects of simulated forest structure are already well represented and which parameters or processes require refinement.
(3) Using G-LiHT to constrain individual-tree model initialization and evaluate structural dynamics. This project would investigate how NASA G-LiHT lidar observations can improve both the initialization and evaluation of an existing spatially-explicit individual-based modeling framework at existing model sites in Alaska or Maine. The student could derive, then use existing G-LiHT products describing canopy height, canopy cover, vertical structure, and—where feasible—individual-tree locations or crown characteristics, and develop methods for translating those observations into model initial conditions. Simulations initialized from lidar-derived structure could then be compared with conventional initialization approaches, such as inventory-based or equilibrium forest initialization, to quantify how strongly starting forest structure affects predictions of biomass, canopy development, composition, and recovery through time.
Openings: 1 student
When: Fall 2026 / Spring 2027
Compensation: Academic credit (note 1 credit is ~3 hours a week), volunteer