Land Core Risk Model Project Team

We have assembled a world-class group of modelers, statisticians, economists, soil scientists and farmers that include:

AGROECOLOGY & QUANTITATIVE ECOLOGY

  • Tim Bowles, Ph.D​,​ Associate Professor of Agroecology and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley; Co-Project Investigator

  • Jiajie Kong, Ph.D, UC Berkeley, Statistics Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Yvonne Socolar, Ph.D, Agroecology, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley; Agroecology Advisor

STATISTICS

  • Frederi Viens, Ph.D, Professor, Department of Statistics, Rice University; Co-Project Investigator

  • Gina Pizzo, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Statistics and Probability, Michigan State University; Statistical Analyst

  • Tyler Bagwell, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Statistics, Rice University; Statistical Modeler

  • Tripp Roberts, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Statistics, Rice University; Summer Graduate Statistical Modeler

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

  • Lawson Connor, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas; Co-Project Investigator

  • Eunchun Park, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas; Crop Insurance & Statistical Modeler

  • Victor Funes-Leal, Ph.D, University of Arkansas; Farm Management Economist Postdoctoral Researcher

COVER CROP DATA SET DEVELOPMENT

  • Shuo Yu, Ph.D Candidate, Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley; Remote Sensing & Mapping Consultant

DATA MANAGEMENT

  • Leo Pham, Ph.D Candidate, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Michigan State University, MS, Applied Statistics, MSU; Senior Data Scientist, Altice USA; Data Manager

  • Joseph Weaver, MS Student, Michigan State University; Analytics Platform Consultant

TOOL DEVELOPMENT

  • Shaun Klopfenstein, Founder and CTO, Nesterly; Back-end Engineer

  • Anna Zeman, Expert Principal Product Architect, Amplitude; Product Architect

Project Advisors

  • David Lobell, Ph.D, Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science, Stanford Earth; Senior Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford University

  • Perry de Valpine, Ph.D, Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley

  • Shefali Mehta, Ph.D​, Founder and Lead Principal, Open Rivers Consulting Associates; Former Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, USDA)

  • Sam Manski, Ph.D, Research Associate, Center for Statistical Training and Consulting, Michigan State University; Consulting Analyst 

  • Ben Goldstein, Ph.D, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UC Berkeley - Spatial Analysis Advisor

  • Kangogo Sogomo, Masters of Development Engineering, UC Berkeley; Geospatial Data Scientist - Cover Crop Data Advisor

  • Katherine Muller, Ph.D, Biologist, USDA-ARS; Statistical Modeler

  • Maoya Bassiouni, Ph.D, Postdoctoral Researcher, Quantitative Ecosystem Dynamics Lab, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley

  • Yanghui Kang, Ph.D, Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Berkeley

  • Jenette Ashtekar​, Ph.D​, VP of Sustainability and Regeneration, CiBO Technologies, Inc.

  • Keith Paustian, Ph.D​, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, and Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University

A Pathway to Carbon Markets?

Soil-based carbon markets hold potential, but by nature, they are pay-for-performance, requiring agricultural producers to undergo an expensive transition and some years of work before realizing any financial benefits.

Read Land Core’s memo outlining a pathway to prosperity for producers: Soil health to de-risk lending and insurance, that pays for the transition to access carbon markets.

Risk Thought Leadership

There is an ever-growing chorus of scientists, farmers, ranchers and businesses acknowledging healthy soil as one of the most effective tools to build resilience and mitigate the risks of flood and drought on agricultural land.

However, the major institutions that are in the business of assessing risk, like insurers, banks, and governments, don’t yet reward producers who are managing their soils responsibly and reducing their risk. (Posted Nov 2019)