Lab Director

Songlin Fei, PhD
  • Ecosystem dynamic and modeling,
  • Invsive species modeling and surveillance, and
  • GIS, Remote sensing and spatial analysis

    • Lab Members

    Cameron Wingren (Research Associate)

    Cameron is the Unmanned Aerial Systems Data Collection Specialist. Meanwhile, he is working on his Master in Forestry degree with application of UAS to detect and monitor forest disturbance. He is co-advised by Dr. Joseph Hupy.

    Yunmei Huang (FNR Ph.D. 2020-)

    Yunmei is interested in digitial forestry research. Her current work focuses on the use of AI in species recognition and biometrics extraction.

    Rebekah Shupe (Research Associate)

    Rebekah is a research associate funded by the USDA Forest Service and HTIRC at Purdue to create a directory of genetic tree improvement trials to be accessed by the public. She obtained her MS in Biology from Marshall University and is interested in forest and fire ecology.

    Heidar Rastiveis (Postdoc Fellow 2022-)

    Heidar is a postdoc in both the NRSA and the DPRG labs at Purdue. He is interested in 3D remote sensing applications for forestry and agriculture. His current studies focus on Digital Forest Inventory using acquired data by a wide range of mobile mapping systems equipped with imaging and LiDAR units (e.g., UAV, backpack, and robotic platforms).

    Jinyuan Shao(FNR Ph.D. 2021-)

    Jinyuan is interested in the application of remote sensing and artificial intelligence in digital forestry. He currently applies satellite imagery and deep learning method to study global forests. For more information about his research, please visit his homepage.

    Dennis Choi (Postdoc Fellow 2021-)

    Dennis is a postdoc in both the Hardiman and Fei labs at Purdue. He is interested in the application of remote sensing in digital forestry and urban ecosystems, in particular how three-dimensional canopy structures influence ecosystem functions.

    Bina Thapa (Postdoc Fellow 2022-)

    Bina is a postdoc in both the Hardiman and Fei labs at Purdue. Bina is interested in application of remote sensing data to understand the forest disturbance ecology and management. Her current studies focus on assessment of forest structure and composition at individual- and stand-level and development of a unifying forest disturbance model.

    Christopher Ardohain (FNR Ph.D. 2022-)

    Chris is a Ph.D. student interested in the application of AI in digital forestry.

    Leah Griffin (FNR undergraduate)

    Leah is an undergraduate research assistant who is interested in learning about the different ways that remote sensing can applied to her field of study, wildlife.

    Avery Fess (FNR undergraduate)

    Avery is an undergraduate research assistant interested in environmental science and the impact of climate change on forests. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and painting.

    Jianmin Wang (Postdoc Fellow 2022-)

    Jianmin is a postdoc in both the Hardiman and Fei labs at Purdue. He holds a PhD is Geospatial Science and Engineering. He is interested in monitoring terrestrial ecosystems using remote sensing and understanding their responses to climate changes and anthropogenic activities. Currently, he mainly focuses on estimation of forest biomass using photogrammetry and lidar.

    Emily Griffin (FNR undergraduate)

    Emily is an Undergraduate research assistant interested habitat management, and how different ecosystems change over time. She helps with research on invasive species mapping and tree species identification based on canopy and bark images.

    Lab Alumni

    Jessica Elliott (FNR M.S. 2020-2022)

    Jessie's research focused on the application of remote sensing, paricularly LiDAR to study forest structure and exotic invasion. She was co-advised by Dr. Elizabeth Flaherty

    Sungchan (Sun) Oh (Postdoc Fellow 2020-)

    Sun was a post-doc working in both the Jung and Fei labs at Purdue. He is interested in developing techniques to extract stand-level forest characteristics from statewide LiDAR data for sustainable forest management. Sun is currently working as a research scientist at Purdue's Phenotyping Center

    Elizabeth laRue (Postdoc Fellow 2017-2021)

    Liz LaRue worked as a post-doc working in both the Hardiman and Fei labs at Purdue. Her research focused on how forest canopy structure influences invasive species distributions and ecosystem functioning using LiDAR. Dr. Larue is currently an assistant professor at The Univerisity of Texas at El Paso.

    Andrew Gougherty (Postdoc Fellow 2021-2022)

    Andy's research focused on the macroecology and biogeography of forest pathogens and insect pests, in particular how invasive pests impact native trees species and the factors influencing pest-host associations. He is currently a Research Landscape Ecologist at USDA Forest Service

    Jamille St Hilaire (FNR undergraduate 2020-2021)

    Jamille was an NSF funded REU student working on invasive pest and digital forestry.

    Lydia Utley (Data Analyst)

    Lydia worked as a data analyst for the digitial forestry projects, focusing on geospatial databasing and analysis

    Rachel Cook (FNR MS 2019-2021)

    Rachel has an educational background in conservation and ecology. She received her B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Her passions lie at the intersection of plant and insect science, data manipulation and analysis, and community ecology. Rachel is currently working as a GIS specialist for USDA Forest Service.

    Jon Knott (Ph.D. ESE 2015-2020)

    USDA NIFA National Needs Fellow. Jon worked on species- and community-level responses to climate change, including impacts of climate change on tree phenology and species composition and geographic distribution. Jon is currently a research forester at USDA Forest Service.

    Samuel Ward (Postdoc Fellow 2018-2020)

    Sam worked on how environmental correlates, including those related to human activity, affect landscape-level patterns of non-native forest insects and pathogens. Sam is currently an assistant professor at Mississippi State Univerisity

    Jessica Gilbert (NSF REU undergraduate 2019-2020)

    Jessica was part of the NSF funded stats learning community, who is interested in studying large scale data analysis and presentation.

    Kimberly A Ordonez(FNR M.F. 2018-2020)

    Kim worked on socioeconomic aspects of exotic invasion. She was co-advised by Dr. Zhao Ma of the Human Dimensions Lab.

    Franklin Wagner(M.S. FNR & EEE 2017-2019)

    Franklin was a MS student co-advised by Drs. Hardiman and Fei. His research is to understand forest structures using remote sensing technics

    Insu Jo (Postdoc Fellow 2016-2018)

    Insu studied the impacts of invasive species on soil properties at local, landscape, and regional scales. He is currently a forest ecologist at Landcare Research, New Zealand

    Anping Chen (Postdoc Fellow 2017-2018)

    Anping is interested in macrosystem research in forest ecosystem dynamics and climate change. He is currently a research scientist at Colorado State University

    Emily Boersma McCallen (Ph.D. Forestry and Natural Resources 2013-2018)

    Emily's research focused on developing and validating ecological niche models for the eastern hellbender at multiple spatial scales. She is currently working as a biometrician in Indiana DNR

    Gabriela Nunez (Ph.D. FNR 2013-2018)

    NSF PRIDE Fellow. Gabby's Ph.D. work focused on macroscale invasion patterns and processes. She is currently an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago

    Benjamin S Taylor (M.S. ESE 2016-2018)

    Ben was interested in macrosystem ecology. His thesis work was to investigate the influences of landscape settings on plant invasion

    Kelly-Ann Dixon Hamil(Postdoc)

    Kelly-Ann was a research associate in the Statistics Department working with both Drs. Hao Zhang and Fei. Kelley-Ann worked on scaling issues with different spatial extent. She is currently a tenure-track faculty member in University of the West Indies

    Namaluba M Malawo (Stats undergraduate)

    Namaluba is interested in mathematics education. In her free time she enjoys listening to music, watching cartoons, and reading non-fiction books.

    Elizabeth A. Gilchrist (FNR undergraduate)

    Ali was an undergraduate research assistant who interested in GIS and working with big data.

    Basil Iannone (Postdoc Fellow 2013 -2016)

    Basil studied macrosystems invasion ecology during his postdoc at Purdue. Basil is currently an assistant professor at Univeristy of Florida

    Luciano Pataro (Visiting Scholar 2017)

    Luciano is a Ph.D. candidate at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. He is interested in biogeography, with focus on evolutionary and ecological drivers of plant distribution patterns.

    Teresa Clark (M.S. ESE, 2013-2015)

    USDA NIFA National Needs Fellow

    Teresa's research focused on historical spread of invasive plant species at the regional scale. She is currently the Program Head for the Indiana Heritage Data Center for Indiana DNR

    Keeli Curtis (B.S. Forestry and Natural Resources )

    Keeli was an undergraduate research assistant working on invasive species spatial distribution

    Johanna Desprez (M.S. Forestry and Natural Resources 2012-2015)

    Forest Dynamics in the Eastern U.S.

    Johanna's research focused on the impact of climate change on the dynamic of forest ecosystem in the eastern U.S. She is currently working as a program coordinator at University of Minnesota

    Christian M Houser (B.S. Forestry and Natural Resources )

    Christian was an undergraduate research assistant working on invasive species functional traits. He is currently working as a silvicultural forester with Washington DNR

    Amy Fowler (Postdoc Fellow 2013)

    Amy studied macroscale invasions at both terestrial and aquatic ecosystems. She is currently an Assistant Professor at George Mason Univerisity

    Feng Yu (M.S. Forestry and Natural Resources 2012-)

    Invasive Species Modeling

    Feng conducted hotspot analysis of invasive species in the U.S. to facilitate invasive research and management. Feng is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University

    Jianguo Huang (Post-Doc Fellow 2012-2013)

    Forest Responses to Climate Change

    Huang is currently a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Science

    Abe Levin-Nielsen (M.S. Forestry 2010-2012)

    Thesis: Spatial prioritization for invasive species management

    Abe is currently a Research Associate at the Entomology Department, University of Kentucky

    Sean M. Murphy (M.S. Forestry 2010-2011)

    Thesis: Non-invasive hair sampling to estimate population size and density of a black bear population in southeast Kentucky.

    Sean is currently a Ph.D. student at the Biology Department, University of Kentucky

    Kevin Devine (M.S. Forestry 2009-2011)

    Thesis: Impact of invasive plant species on ecosystem services

    Kevin is currently working as a GIS Specialist for the Kentucky Devision of Natural Resources

    Dr. Liang Liang (Post-Doc 2009-2011)

    Dr. Liang is a Physical Geographer with specialties in Remote Sensing and GIS. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, University of Kentucky.

    Ellery Watson (B.S. Forestry 2009)

    Forestry, Philosophy, and Mathematics

    Ellery worked under Dr. Songlin Fei and assisting graduate students with data collection and entry.

    Michael Shouse (M.S. 2008-2010)

    Thesis: Feature based high resolution image classification and invasive species spatial modeling

    Michael is currently an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

    Drew Combs (B.S. Forestry 2008)

    Forestry and Philosophy

    Currently working as a technician in Lusaka, Zambia.

    Yu (Ryan) Liang (M.S.Forestry 2008-2010)

    Thesis title: Exotic Invasive Plants in Kentucky

    Ryan is currently working as a Research Associate at Virginia Tech

    John Hast (M.S. Forestry 2008-2010)

    Thesis title: Genetic Diversity, Structure, and Recolonization Patterns of Kentucky Black Bears

    John is currently working on his Ph.D. degree in the University of Kentucky

    Josh Clark (M.S. Entomology 2007-2010)

    Thesis title: Distribution of Eastern Hemlock, Tsuga Canadensis, in Eastern Kentucky and the Susceptibility to Invasion by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Adelges Tsugae.

    Josh is currently working for ABF

    Andrew Whittle (M.S. Forestry 2007-2009)

    Thesis title: Large mammal habitat modeling and prediction

    Andrew is currently working as a wildlife biologist for the Kentucky Devision of Fishery and Wildlife

    Peilin Yang (M.S. Forestry 2007-2009)

    Thesis title: Forest composition and dynamic in the eastern U.S.

    Peilin is currently working on her Ph.D. degree in the University of Georgia