Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Carly is a Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Department. As an environmental microbiologist, Carly is excited by questions about how microorganisms influence host health. Specifically, Carly studies how microalgae, bacteria, and viruses influence coral disease in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and how these microorganisms are distributed on Pacific coral reefs. Her research utilizes a range of data science and bioinformatic tools to integrate DNA- and RNA-based signatures of microbial activity with microscopy image analysis. Carly received...
Elena is a PhD student in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department. She is an environmental and development economist, particularly interested in work that uses remote sensing data to investigate issues at the intersection of these two fields. Her research has spanned many parts of the world including India, Nigeria, and Latin America. She has teaching experience as a GSI for topics and methods in environmental economics, development economics and policy, and statistics and econometrics.
Jiayu Lai is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests cover trade politics, labor politics, and the political economy of industrial transfers and global production. Prior to UC Berkeley, she received a Bachelor's degree from Sun Yat-sen University and a Master's degree from the University of Chicago.
Jose R. Aguilar is currently a PhD student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership program at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. His research utilizes natural language processing, machine learning, and social network analysis to investigate how institutional discourse, algorithmic decision-making, and education policy influence postsecondary access and equity for marginalized students. Before Berkeley, Jose earned his M.A. in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University and dual B.A./B.S.A. degrees in Government, Latina/o Studies, and Computer Science from the University of...
Joyce is a PhD candidate in Transportation Engineering. Her research focuses on assessing safety and network impacts of autonomous vehicles. She has teaching experiences in statistics and programming. Prior to Berkeley, Joyce obtained her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, and had worked as a software engineer at various companies.
Maksymilian Jasiak is a PhD Student in GeoSystems Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) for lifeline infrastructure monitoring. His work aims to advance critical infrastructure security and resilience. He holds a MS in GeoSystems Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Paige Park is a Doctoral candidate in Demography. Her dissertation investigates applications of AI to demography, including deep learning based demographic forecasting. She is interested in using emerging tools to better model and contextually understand mortality, fertility, and migration patterns, particularly in the US context. She received an MA in Statistics from UC Berkeley in 2023.
Sarah Daniel is a PhD candidate in Political Science, specializing in urban politics in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on East Africa. Her research examines how neighborhood communities organize for collective action to improve service delivery, reduce inequality, and enhance political representation.
Data Science & AI Fellow 2025-2026, Data Science for Social Justice Fellow 2024
Haas School of Business
Skyler is a Ph.D. student in Behavioral Marketing at the Haas School of Business. Her research centers on consumer behavior and judgment and decision-making, with a keen interest in both experimental methods and data science techniques. She holds a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Data Science from New York University Shanghai.
Weiying is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the UC Berkeley School of Education, with a Designated Emphasis in New Media. Her research focuses on designing and evaluating AI dialogs that support students in learning complex science concepts and engaging with social justice topics in science, such as food access. She uses mixed methods to investigate how iterative prompt design, developed in collaboration with teachers, can deepen students’ knowledge integration. Her work contributes to the development of responsible and adaptive AI tools for...
