MEDS 2023
Pronouns: she/her
Bio
Mallory Giesie is a current master’s student in Environmental Data Science at the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. She graduated from the American University of Paris with a degree in Quantitative Environmental Science and a minor in Computer Science. Her initial interest in the world of Environmental Data Science came after taking a class focused on numerical solutions to problem-solving in the environment. This class opened up the discipline to her and showed her how crucial a role data science plays in much of cutting-edge research. In tandem with her formal education, she was able to explore the interdisciplinary nature between Ecology and Data Science at the University of Konstanz’s Limnological Institute. During her time at the institute, she assisted in research exploring a species of zooplankton’s ability to rapidly evolve under increased competition while also organizing and analyzing the study’s incoming data. After learning about the variety of ecological and evolutionary responses organisms employ to cope with their changing environment, she became fascinated in ways to utilize data to model these changes. She believes this analysis is crucial as natural systems become increasingly threatened by anthropogenic stressors like climate change. Her background in environmental sciences, combined with her data analysis skills, pushes her toward pursuing a role in ecological forecasting, where she hopes to use her knowledge to explore and assess ecosystem shifts in response to environmental issues.