People

Current Members

Principle Investigator

Becca Neumann

Becca founded and leads the hydro-biogeochemistry research group. She is an associate professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at University of Washington. She has worked at UW since 2011.

Prior to UW, Becca was a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked as an environmental engineering consultant for EG&G Technical Services before graduate school, and received her B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering and B.A. in Art and Art History from Rice University.

Outside of work, Becca enjoys hiking, mountaineering and rock climbing with her husband and two kids.

Graduate Students

Joel Eklof

Joel received his B.S. in physics from the University of Puget Sound in 2016, where he conducted biophysics research on the fluid mechanics of splash-cup plants. As part of the hydro-biogeochemistry group, he is investigating the effects of rapid permafrost thaw on carbon dioxide and methane fluxes in Alaska. Outside of research, Joel enjoys mountain biking, climbing, backpacking, skipping rocks, and hammocking across the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Robin Ruhm

Robin received her B.S. in mathematics from Stanford University in 2017, and has worked in software, research, and water treatment in the years since. In 2021 she began her PhD at UW and is studying the effect of mercury released from gold mines on the Peruvian Amazon. She also is interested in community-engaged research, feminist methodologies, and collaborating with Indigenous community in the lands where she works. Outside of work, Robin loves playing music, hosting shabbos, swimming, and exploring nature with community.

Former Members

Postdoctoral Researchers

Rachel Strickman

Rachel worked in the Hydro-biogeochemistry group from Nov 2017 to Mar 2022. She studied mercury methylation and demethylation in the soils of rice plants.

Pam Barrett

Pam is now a research scientist with the Cooperative Institue for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies. In the Hydro-biogeochemistry group (fall 2015 to spring 2018) she investigated arsenic mobility and bioaccumulation in impacted urban lakes.

Colby Moorberg

Colby is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. In the Hydro-biogeochemistry group (Jan 2014 to Jan 2015) her investigated the effect of plant roots on methane oxidation in boreal wetlands in Alaska.

Javier Espeleta

Javier in now the director of the Associated Colleges of the midwest in Costa Rica. In the Hydro-biogeochemistry group (Jan 2013 to Aug 2015) he investigated how plant hydraulic redistribution of water and nighttime transpiration influences nutrient cycling in the soil zone surrounding plant roots.

Graduate Students

Sam Fung

Sam completed her PhD in May 2023. She worked on the Arsenic in Urban Lakes project. Her thesis was titled, "The effect of mixing patterns on arsenic mobilization and transport in a shallow lake."

Yasmine Farhat

Yasmine completed her PhD in May 2022. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the American University of Beirut. She worked on the topic of Rice Grain Quality. Her thesis was titled, "Altered rice nutritional quality resulting from environmental change: An investigation into the implications of temperature, phenology, and flooding on rice metal and metalloid accumulation."

Nick Waldo

Nick completed his PhD in June 2019 and is now an Environmental Program manager for Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. He worked on the Methane & Permafrost Thaw project. His thesis was titled, "A rhizosphere-scale investigation of root effects on wetland methane dynamics."

Lara Pracht

Lara completed her PhD in November 2016 and is now the Director of Academic Affairs at the Portland-Metro campus of Oregon Institute of Technology. Her thesis was titled, "Arsenic contaminated groundwater: exploration of the role of organic carbon in mobilization processes and evaluation of mechanisms of arsenic sequestration by in situ treatment systems."

Farnaz Aslkhodapasand

Farnaz completed her master's degree in November 2016 and is now a Project Engineer at HNTB. Her thesis was titled, "Integration of dynamic rhizospheric methane oxidation into a process-based methane emissions model."

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