Research Interests: In keeping with my interdisciplinary educational background in biology, computer science, and environmental engineering, my research interests involve computational forward and inverse modeling and analysis of biological and environmental problems.  Most of my research has focused on developing novel computational methods for large-scale, nonlinear, multi-scale tomographic inverse image reconstruction problems in subsurface hydrology, geophysics, and deep-tissue near-infrared fluorescence imaging.  However, in the past couple of years I have shifted my research towards modeling and analysis of complex adaptive systems in a variety of biological and environmental systems.  Current projects include developing, studying, and using novel evolutionary and agent-based computational approaches for a wide range of important problems, including plant species’ invasiveness in ecological communities, biological speciation, the impact of spatial topologies on information flow through complex interaction networks, identifying nonlinear interactions between single nucleotide polymorphisms that predispose for complex disease traits, and agent-based integrated assessment modeling of transportation energy alternatives.

Please visit my CV for a complete list of publications, including pdfs of most.

hip stuff

Personal Interests: 

Martial Arts (Northern Shaolin Praying-Mantis Kung Fu (since 1996; black sash attained 12/14/02), Yin style Ba Gua Zhang (since 1996), Tae Kwon Do (since 1991; 3rd degree WTF black belt attained 6/10/00)), rock-hounding (gem and mineral collecting), perennial gardening, hiking, snowshoeing, camping, sewing and related crafts, and of course my wonderful family, including husband Peter and sons Stuart (1983) and Daniel (1988), my cats, and lots of other things!

This is me practicing with my bagua saber -- yes, it really is as big as it looks!