MESM 2021
Bio
Evan Heberlein graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA (2016) with honors in Biology and Environmental Studies and a minor in Politics. At Whitman, Evan’s honors thesis studied human interventions in an estuary at Cape Cod National Seashore, namely salt marsh drainage and resulting acidification. This thesis drove Evan to further investigate aquatic ecosystems’ relationship with ecological disturbance. He has contributed to several other aquatic ecology research projects in his home state of Minnesota, focused on disturbances like bacterial nutrient enrichment and marsh vegetation inundation. After college, Evan worked as an environmental consultant with Terracon, where he used ArcGIS to monitor groundwater contamination sites. Evan’s interest in aquatic ecosystems emerged while leading canoe trips in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters with YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, where he developed his love of the outdoors and passion for environmental problem solving. Evan has always sought to pursue interdisciplinary goals in his education and career, and he brings this spirit of collaboration to Bren. Specializing in Coastal and Marine Resources and Management and Water Resources Management with a focus on Environmental Data Science, Evan hopes to use geospatial analysis to investigate how wetlands and estuaries mitigate climate change’s coastal impacts.