COOKS BRANCH FDP 2026 TREE CENSUS TEAM
Ryan Alexander |
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Technician & Team Lead
Ryan is from College Station, Texas, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management from Texas A&M University. He has a strong interest in stewardship and land management, with experience in ecological processes, wildlife management, grazing systems, and plant identification. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys playing pickleball and mountain biking. |
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GRADUATE STUDENTS
COMING SOON!
Are you interested in joining the lab? see JOIN THE LAB tab.
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Non-Thesis Master's Degree Students
Julieta Viñas Vilá
A master's student with a Horticulture BS and French minor, who has always had a passion for conservation and restoring the environment. A firm believer in working alongside nature and not against it. During this new journey, I plan to expand my knowledge and skills to assess tropical and coastal ecosystems sustainably.
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Lab lead - J. Aaron Hogan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Forestry
Biography:
I have witnessed first-hand the effects that climate change can have on forests. Around the turn of the century, several abnormally warm years led to the outbreak of the mountain pine beetle where I grew up in Summit County, Colorado. Over the span of a decade, high rates of mortality transformed several thousand acres of forest, leaving behind a tinderbox of standing dead lodge-pole Pine trees. This completely changed the landscape of the area with potential effects on longer-term ecosystem functioning. Climate change will continue to impact and shape the forests of the Mountain West and the globe.
I am a field-experienced and academically trained forest ecologist. I use many approaches to study forest ecosystems, including community and ecosystem ecology, plant physiology, plot-based studies, functional ecology, and remote sensing. My scientific motivation is to document and better understand forest (and tree) responses to global change (e.g., disturbance, warming, increasing CO2, drought). I have a fascination with high-diversity tropical forests. I have done research in both tropical and temperate forests.
My research focuses on understanding the ecology of forests and their future functioning as ecosystems in the Anthropocene
Academic degrees:
2011 - B.S. in Ecology and Biodiversity from University of Denver
2015 - M.S. en Ciencias Ambientales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico - Río Piedras
2021 - Ph.D. in Biology from Florida International University
I have witnessed first-hand the effects that climate change can have on forests. Around the turn of the century, several abnormally warm years led to the outbreak of the mountain pine beetle where I grew up in Summit County, Colorado. Over the span of a decade, high rates of mortality transformed several thousand acres of forest, leaving behind a tinderbox of standing dead lodge-pole Pine trees. This completely changed the landscape of the area with potential effects on longer-term ecosystem functioning. Climate change will continue to impact and shape the forests of the Mountain West and the globe.
I am a field-experienced and academically trained forest ecologist. I use many approaches to study forest ecosystems, including community and ecosystem ecology, plant physiology, plot-based studies, functional ecology, and remote sensing. My scientific motivation is to document and better understand forest (and tree) responses to global change (e.g., disturbance, warming, increasing CO2, drought). I have a fascination with high-diversity tropical forests. I have done research in both tropical and temperate forests.
My research focuses on understanding the ecology of forests and their future functioning as ecosystems in the Anthropocene
Academic degrees:
2011 - B.S. in Ecology and Biodiversity from University of Denver
2015 - M.S. en Ciencias Ambientales de la Universidad de Puerto Rico - Río Piedras
2021 - Ph.D. in Biology from Florida International University