Latest News from the LEES Lab


Dr. Jin Wang arrives LEES as a postdoc research associate

September 23, 2024

Jiquan Chen receives Outstanding Service Award, USCCC - 2024

July 18, 2024

Jiquan Chen receives Scientific Achievement Award (SAA) of IUFRO - 2024

May 1, 2024

Gabriela Shirkey will starts her a Grand Challenge Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at Chapman University in August, 2023

Jun 7, 2023

Julia (Jules) Seay starts at LEES lab as an REU student

May 21, 2023

Zutao Ouyang (a former member at LEES) will take a tenure-track position at Auburn University. best wishes

May 30, 2023

Cheyenne Lei received the Jennifer L. Reed Bioenergy Science Award, GLBRC/DOE

Apr 25, 2023

Gabriela Shirkey receives ESPP Outstanding Student Publication Award for 2023

March 16, 2023

Jing Yuan accepted a position at California Department of Water Resources as a senior environmental scientist

June 6,2022

Cheyenne Lei accepted a postdoc position at the Institute of Global Change Biolgy, University of Michigan

May 22,2022

LEES lab is in the field today to deconstruct flux tower at a wetland. With the help from the landlord, the platform is reused and modified to a potential sandhill crane habitat

May 13, 2022
field work

Cheyenne Lei completed her PhD prgram

May 6, 2022

Gabriela receives an AmeriFlux scholarship for Summer 2022

April 1,2022

Gabriela Shirkey received the  COGS Disciplinary Leadership Award (2022)

April, 2022

Jiquan Chen were awarded as "Global Scholar" from 2021-22 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program

April 1,2021

Pietro Sciusco were selected to receive Gregg award

March 23, 2021

Pietro Sciusco receives KBS LTER Summer 2021 Graduate Research Fellowship

March 23, 2021

He will present his work at summer Graduate Fellows Symposium and All-Scientist Meeting at Kellogg Biological Station.

Pietro Sciusco receives Owen Gregg Global Climate Change Research Award

Jiquan receives Williams J Beal Outstanding Faculty Award at MSU

Cover reveal of our latest book in Landscape Series by Springer

September 18, 2019

"Landscape Dynamics of Drylands across Greater Central Asia: People, Societies and Ecosystems" cover art is released.

This volume is a compilation of studies on interactions of changes in land cover, land use and climate with people, societies and ecosystems in drylands of Greater Central Asia. It explores the effects of collapse of socialist governance and management systems on land use in various parts of Central Asia, including former Soviet Union republics, Mongolia and northern drylands of China. Often, regional land-atmosphere feedbacks may have large global importance. Remote sensing is a primary tool in studying vast dryland territories where in situ observations are sporadic. State-of-the-art methods of satellite remote sensing combined with GIS and models are used to tackle science questions and provide an outlook of current changes at land surface and potential scenarios for the future.

Gabriela Shirkey is awarded with a Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) by the National Science Foundation for 3+ years.

April 9, 2019

Congratulations to LEES Lab Ph.D. student Gabriela Shirkey on being awarded with Graduate Research Fellowship of NSF!

A paper by John et al. (2016) was ranked the 3rd most cited publications by "Landscape Ecology"

April 9, 2019

John R., J. Chen, Y. Kim, Z. Ouyang, J. Xiao, H. Park, C. Shao, Y. Zhang, A. Amarjargal, and J. Qi. 2016. Differentiating anthropogenic modification and precipitation-driven change on vegetation productivity on the Mongolian Plateau. Landscape Ecology 31:547–566.

Zutao Ouyang to start a postodocal research associate position at Stanford University in June 1, 2019;

April 7, 2019

Congratulations and good luck!

Cheyenne Lei receives Thompson Endowment Award and a Research Scholars Award from the College of Social Science

March 29, 2019

Congratulations to LEES Lab Ph.D. student Cheyenne Lei on being awarded with Thompson Endowment Award and a Research Scholars Award from the College of Social Science!

Gabriela Shirkey receives Thompson Endowment Award and a Research Scholars Award from the College of Social Science

March 27, 2019

Congratulations to LEES Lab Ph.D. student Gabriela Shirkey on being awarded with Thompson Endowment Award and a Research Scholars Award from the College of Social Science!


Cheyenne Lei receives KBS LTER Fall 2019 Research Fellowship

March 6, 2019

Congratulations to LEES Lab Ph.D. student Cheyenne Lei on being selected as a recipient for the KBS LTER Fall 2019 Research Fellowship!


LEES Alum Dr. Housen Chu accepts position as Earth Research Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

February 25, 2019
Congratulations to LEES Lab alum Dr. Hoseun Chu on securing a permanent position as Earth Research Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Dr. Chu is the third person from the LEES lab to secure a permanent position this year!


Pietro Sciusco selected as a recipient for the "NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Award"

February 18, 2019
Congratulations to LEES Lab Ph.D. student Pietro Sciusco on being selected as a recipient for the "NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Awards", which are supported by the NASA and Michigan State University (MSU) to assist some outstanding junior scholars in attending the US-IALE meeting in Fort Collins, Colorado, April 7-11, 2019.


Dr. Eugenie Euskirchen accepts a tenure-track position at the University of Alaska

January 21, 2019
Congratulations to LEES Lab alumni Eugenie Euskirchen who was offered and has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska.


Dr. Ranjeet John accepts a tenure-track position at the University of South Dakota

January 19, 2019
Congratulations to LEES Lab alumni Ranjeet John who was offered and has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Ecological Modeling in the Department of Biology at the University of South Dakota. He will begin his new position in August 2019. Dr. John remains a COI for the LEES Lab's NASA Carbon project in the Kalamazoo watershed.


Hogeun Park unanimously passes his PhD dissertation defense

May 22, 2018

Congratulations to Hogeun Park on unanimously passing his PhD defense, titled "Urban Transformation in Transitional Economies: Lessons From the Mongolian Plateau".


Gabriela Shirkey successfully passes her "straight-to-PhD" defense

April 24th, 2018

Congratulations to Gabriela Shirkey on completing and unanimously passing her "straight-to-PhD" defense, titled "Spatiotemporal Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Agricultural Landscape Production".


Cheyenne Lei awarded W.K. Kellogg Biological Station summer fellowship

March 29th, 2018

Congratulations to Cheyenne Lei on being awarded a W.K. Kellogg Biological Station summer fellowship! This funding is provided by funds from the MSU Graduate School that are used to encourage graduate students to develop research and/or participate in educational programs at KBS.


Gabriela Shirkey awarded ESPP Doctoral Recruitment Fellowship

February, 2018

Congratulations to Gabriela Shirkey on being awarded an Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP) Doctoral Recruiting Fellowship! ESPP Doctoral Recruiting Fellowships are awarded to students that have demonstrated academic excellence and contribute to a diverse educational community.


LEES Lab welcomes Pietro Sciusco

January 22, 2018

LEES Lab welcomes their newest Ph.D student, Pietro Sciusco.


LEES Lab welcomes Dr. David Reed

September 5, 2017

LEES Lab welcomes Dr. David Reed, a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the NASA Carbon project. An interdisciplinary researcher at heart, David grew up in Michigan and received Bachelor and Master degrees in Climate Physics and Atmospheric Science from University of Michigan. David served as a visiting professor of physics at Dickinson College for a year, teaching meteorology, climate and physics, and then he received a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Ankur Desai at UW-Madison. During his time in Madison, David worked on improving observations of lake thermodynamics and carbon fluxes, collaborating with the Long Term Ecological Research North Temperate Lakes group.


LEES Alumna Dr. Changliang Shao accepts professorship position with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

September 8, 2017

LEES congratulates Dr. Changliang Shao, who was hired as professor with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' National Hulunber Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station. Dr. Shao has been a postdoc with LEES Lab for five years.


Ecological Processes accepted into Scopus indexing

April 18, 2017

The journal Ecological Processes, where Dr. Jiquan Chen serves as editor-in-cheif, will be accepted for inclusion in Scopus. Scopus is a world-renowned indexing service—the journals included in it are known to be highly cited and relevant in their field, have a diverse and knowledgeable editorial board, and have the most robust editorial policies.

Ecological Processes is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal devoted to quality publications in ecological studies with a focus on the underlying processes responsible for the dynamics and functions of ecological systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Read the full story on the journal's website.


LEES Alumna Janet Silbernagel elected as President of US-IALE

April 16, 2017

At this year's annual IALE (International Association of Landscape Ecology) conference, the next US-IALE President was announced as Janet Silbernagel, a LEES alumna. Janet was the first PhD to graduate from LEES when the lab was at Michigan Technological University. Currently, she leads the Landscape Conservation Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations Janet!


Giannico et al. 2016 announced Winner of the Hexagon Education Contest 2017.

April 14, 2017

Hexagon Geospatial annually hosts the HxGN LIVE EDU contest for researchers and innovators around the world, attracting unique efforts and creative expansion in the field of geospatial analysis. Our own members Vincenzo Giannico and Raffaelle Lafortezza took first place with their recently published paper in Remote Sensing Estimating Stand Volume and Above-Ground Biomass of Urban Forests Using LiDAR. In this research, an innovative methodology estimated biomass in urban areas within forested areas of Milan, Italy with the aid of LiDAR data. In combination with Hexagon Geospatial software (ERDAS IMAGINE) and modeling, the analysis in this research not only estimated the amount of biomass present in the study area, but advances our ability to estimate carbon sinks in urban areas.

Both LEES members will accept their award at HxGN LIVE in Las Vegas June 13-16, 2017 and present their research. Visit Hexagon Geospatial's blog for the full story.

Citation: Giannico, V., R. Lafortezza, R. John, G. Sanesi, L. Pesola, and J. Chen. 2016. Estimating stand volume and above-ground biomass of urban forests using LiDAR. Remote Sensing 8: 339; doi:10.3390/rs8040339


Gabriela Shirkey awarded the Academic Achievement Graduate Assistantship (AAGA)

March 17, 2017

Congratulations to Gabriela Shirkey on earning MSU's Graduate School Academic Achievement Graduate Assistantship (AAGA). Assistantships are awarded to incoming students who will enhance the educational diversity of the student body and whose record shows leadership potential and demonstrated academic achievement. We're proud to now host two AAGA awardees in the LEES Lab.


Socioecological Carbon Production in Managed Agricultural-Forest Landscapes funded by NASA

December 30, 2016

Land use, land cover changes, and ecosystem-specific management practices are increasingly recognized for their roles in mediating the climatic effects on ecosystem structure and function. As demonstrated by some scholars, human activities can influence C fluxes and storage far more than climatic changes. All of these activities require a CO2-equivalent amount of energy ("social C flux") to offset the actual amount of C sequestered by the ecosystems and landscapes. A complete life cycle assessment (LCA) is needed to account for the actual sequestration strength at different spatial and temporal scales.

New funding from NASA will sponsor our next carbon cycle study at Kellogg Biological Station as well as in the Kalamazoo watershed.

New student opportunities
Download graduate position announcement | Download Postdoc position details

Positions for 1 Postdoc, 2 PhD students, and 2 Undergraduate students are open starting fall 2017. If you are interested in applying, please contact Dr. Jiquan Chen with your CV, GRE scores, TOEFL (if applicable) and experience.


Cheyenne Lei awarded the Academic Achievement Graduate Assistantship (AAGA)

November 5, 2016

Congratulations to Cheyenne Lei on earning this competitive assistantship. The Graduate School offers the AAGA to students whose enrollment enhances the educational diversity of the student body and whose record shows leadership potential and demonstrated academic achievement.


Undergraduate research positions available

October 1, 2016

Edit: Position closed
We are offering position(s) to undergraduates for the 2016-2017 academic year. Successful applicant(s) will participate in our project, Coupled Human and Natural Systems on the Mongolian Plateau", which examines and models the changes of the natural and human systems on the plateau as well as the critical feedbacks between them over recent decades. Experience in socioeconomic and environmental science, data management, lab equipment, is welcome, but not necessary. Prospective students may and contact Professor Jiquan Chen with questions and interest.


New data collected from the Mongolian Plateau

August 26, 2016

After a summer of fieldwork on the Mongolian Plateau, Drs. Jiquan Chen and Ranjeet John have collected new data for the CNH project. Photos of the Gobi Desert and the Inner Mongolian sites have also been uploaded, describing the landscape of each plot visited, under "land cover photos". Images of the Fieldwork in Mongolia


Dr. Jiquan Chen becomes new Editor-in-Chief of Ecological Processes

January 10, 2016

Dr. Jiquan Chen is the new Editor-in-Chief at Ecological Processes, starting February 1, 2016. For journal information or for manuscript submissions, email Dr. Chen.

About Ecological Processes

Ecological Processes presents a unique niche for ecological publications and embraces a wide, interdisciplinary scope of ideas and an integrated, comprehensive approach to each one. Though the journal specifically welcomes articles that integrate natural and social processes at appropriately broad spatial and temporal scales, we publish research regarding all aspects of biological, chemical, physical and hydrological processes of ecosystem and landscape dynamics across spatial and temporal scales.


Past News

  • AGU'S Eos Research Spotlight features our latest research on carbon and energy exchanges over the Western Lake Erie Basin—take a look here.
  • Zutao Ouyang, Changliang Shao, Housen Chu, Richard Becker, Jiquan Chen, Thomas Bridgeman, Carol Stepien, and Ranjeet John presented their poster, "Relating Chlorophyll-a to CO2 flux western Lake Erie" at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, USA in April 2015.
  • Jiquan Chen was elected as a fellow of the Ecological Society of Americans (ESA) in 2014.
  • Mike Deal accepted a position with Ohio EPA as the Environmental Specialist. He will start in Sept., 2012. Congratulations after 6 years at LEES Lab!
  • Jiquan Chen was elected as fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011.
  • The 2011 Norbert Gerbier-MUMM Award of the World Meteorological Organization was given to Yi et al (2010) [PDF]. Several LEES Members are co-authors. Cheers!
  • Mike Deal defended his thesis on June 9, 2011!
  • Ranjeet John completed his PhD research in Dec. 2010
  • Janet Silbernagel is the first Chair for the Conservation Biology & Sustainable Development Program at Univ. of Wisconsin starting in Fall, 2010
  • Jiquan is one of the 5 "Distinguished University Professors (DUP)" of UT for 2010-2015
  • Congratulations to Soung Ryu who was offered & accepted a tenure-track faculty position by the University of Alberta!
  • Congratulations to Nan Lu, Jessica Schaefer and Jianye Xu who successfully defended their theses in Aug., 2009!
  • Congratulations to Nan Lu who received an offer for Assistant Professor by Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Congratulations to Jim LeMoine who received UROP Recognition Award for Outstanding Research Mentorship at the University of Michigan, on Mar. 11, 2009

a Grand Challenge Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow