Biography

Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division. She is an ecohydrologist with a background in geophysics and hydrology, who combines modeling, laboratory experiments, fieldwork, and satellite data to better understand the link between the water and carbon cycles in vegetation across spatial and temporal scales. She is interested in the effects of dew, fog and rain interception on canopy water and carbon fluxes, the effects of soil moisture variation on plant functioning, and the dynamics of wetland extent on methane emissions. Her research spans a broad range of ecosystems and methods to provide new insight on natural environments and the mechanisms driving them.