Interdisciplinary Rules of Life team convenes for a day of focused science

This image is of the interdisciplinary Center for Ecosystem Forecasting standing and kneeling in front of a wall with a TV screen with three people visible on the online screen. — Back row (L to R): Cayelan Carey, CEF co-director and Biology professor; Bobby Gramacy, Statistics dept head and professor; Ryan Calder, assistant professor, Population Health Sciences; Quinn Thomas, CEF co-director and Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation professor; Maria Popescu, graduate student; Cece Woods, Geosciences graduate student; Dexter Howard, Biology graduate student; Sarah Bogen, CEF research scientist; Alicia Bateman, Geosciences graduate student; Bibek Kandel, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation graduate student. Kneeling (L to R): Dan Stanton, CEF transitional science lead and program coordinator; Mahabub Chowdhury, Population Health Sciences graduate student; Parul Patel, Statistics graduate student; Katie Hoffman, Biology graduate student; Adrienne Breef-Pilz, CEF – ecosystem data manager; Molly Stroud, CEF postdoctoral researcher.

Members of the Virginia Tech Center for Ecosystem Forecasting met on May 8 for an interdisciplinary lake and reservoir phytoplankton modeling workshop that brought together experts in computer science, statistics, geosciences, education, ecosystem science, modeling, and decision science.

The objective of the interdisciplinary team working on the Rules of Life project (NSF 2318661) is to understand and forecast the emergent behavior of phytoplankton in freshwater, and to advance water quality management in general.