My Resume
Research Career
Post-doctoral Fellow
January 2021 - present
Wildfire spread in the context of vegetation dynamics and ecohydrology, UC Irvine & Wake Forest University
Ph.D., Environmental Science
September 2016Â - December 2020
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University - Durham, NC
Dissertation: "Plant water transport and photosynthesis in water-limited environments"
Research experience:
Collaborated with an international team of wood anatomists and plant physiologists to discover the influence of xylem vessel network on plant resistance to embolism spread.
Formalized a dynamic optimality approach to produce a publication on the response of photosynthesis to drought.
Developed an object-oriented program on Matlab to simulate water flow in vegetation and its resistance to embolism spread (available on Github).
Performed a dynamical systems analysis to project groundwater withdrawal and crop production on the United States High Plains.
Orchestrated a synthesis of the literature on size-density relationships in mono-specific stands shaped by competition.
Bachelor in Engineering
September 2012 - May 2016
Mechanical Engineering, American University of Beirut - Beirut, Lebanon
I was especially passionate about thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. I learned valuable lessons that influence the way I conduct research today:
to focus on the problem at hand, rather than on the tools used to solve it,
to be comfortable tapping into other fields of study,
to disregard field delineations. For example, in the mechatronics course, I programmed and built a circuit and a mechanical device. I used these three different course subjects for one purpose.
CV updated in March 2021