Student Researchers

Current Student Researchers

Ara Hakim

Current Position/Status: 

Environmental Engineering PhD program, expecting to graduate in 2026.

Research Focus within C-CHARM: 

Ara is currently supporting Dr. Dave Watkins for ITE integration within C-CHARM, and in conjunction with his PhD study working alongside Dr. Ana Dyreson for investigating snow variability for power resilience. 

Background: 

Ara studied oceanography for his undergrad in Indonesia. Then he got his master’s degree in Coastal Geoscience from the University of Kiel in Germany, before finishing another master’s degree in marine science from UMass Dartmouth in 2015. He worked for consulting companies for about 6 years before returning to school in 2021 at Michigan Tech to pursue his PhD. His research experience covers the implementation of numerical models for hydrodynamics and sediment transport, and also tidal energy resource and impact evaluation in Massachusetts waters. He is currently working on water resources management problems in the Great Lakes under the supervision of Dr. Dave Watkins.    

Current Projects: 

Ara is currently investigating the changing hydrology in the Great Lakes basin and how it affects potential risk and hazard within the region. This will also serve as the basis of his work on formulating a novel predictor for improving net basin supply forecast of Lake Superior.

Future Goals: 

Ara aspires to be a teaching professor after he graduates, specializing in water resources and hydroinformatics.

Mercedes Asamani

Current Position/Status: 

PhD Environmental and Energy Policy
Graduate Research Assistant
Anticipated Graduation Year: 2026

Research Focus within C-CHARM: 

I am assisting Dr. Jenny Apriesnig with the socio-economic impact analysis of energy system transitions, and community engagement for climate change mitigation and adaptation. These align with my dissertation interests. 

Background: 

I come from an education and public administration background and have had the opportunity to work as program and research assistant with international and national organizations on several research projects in the areas of enhancing climate action at the local level through a collaborative engagement as the co-lead of the Environment and Climate Action Group of the All-Africa Students Union, Mining Districts Development Scorecard led by CDD-Ghana to enhance environmental justice in mining communities, reduce corruption, ensure transparency, accountability, and track the transfer and utilization of mining receipts. I also worked as a research assistant on a government of Ghana project targeted at enhancing the cashew value chain and feeding into the operations of the Tree Crop Development Authority, Ghana Cocoa Board, UNESCO, and Commonwealth Youth Council, amongst others before my starting as a PhD student in Fall 2023. I also conducted a st targeted at assessing the activities of waste pickers in Ghana.

For my Master’s education, my research focused on the effect of political interference on the fight against corruption using Ghana’s Office of the Prosecutor as a case study. I have also worked on and submitted for publication a paper on Interventions to mitigate household air pollution in Ghana; a cost-benefit analysis and a policy assessment.

I use social science methods to explore the socio-economic implications of socio-ecological and socio-technical systems associated with Energy transition in BIPOC and low-income communities in the United States of America and Sub-Saharan Africa. I am particularly interested in Energy and Climate Policy, Community Engagement, and Energy and Environmental Justice. I am also interested in international environmental governance and the role of political settlements in driving climate action and building climate resilience. Having worked in both the public and private sectors and with diverse teams in various capacities as Programs and Research Assistant and other supervisory roles in the areas of sustainability, social empowerment, equity, and environmental justice, I am well-versed in stakeholder and community engagement, policy brief writing, data analysis, policy analysis, research, project management and coordination, and excellent communication amongst others.

Current Projects: 

  • C-Charm
  • Preparation for my candidacy exam and proposal defense
  • Working on personal research papers

Achievements/Contributions:

(limited to my time in MTU)

  • Conduct a literature review and an assessment of how InVEST and other economic impact analysis tools can be utilized on the C-CHARM project.
  • Work with Prof. Schelly on CCPT engagement materials.
  • Organized and moderated a panel discussion on Experiential Climate Education: The role of young people and student-led organizations at COP 28
  • Guest lectured on the impact of climate change on the cocoa industry in Ghana.
  • Guest lectured on Climate Change as an international commons-pool governance issue.
  • Won the Smithsonian grant to attend the Pre-COP 28 training where my team did a presentation on green space planning for climate adaptation.
  • Selected and won a travel grant for the American Geophysical Union Geosciences Congressional Visits Day (Geo-CVD) event.
  • Founder of the African Climate Leaders Fellowship targeted at building the capacity of young Africans (18 and 35 years ) for action in building sustainable and inclusive communities.

Publications

  • Asamani, R.M. (2024). Clean Cooking Interventions to Mitigate Household Air Pollution: A Cost Benefit Analysis and Policy Assessment.
  • Asamani, R.M. (2023). An Assessment of the Activities of Plastic Waste Pickers in Ghana.
  • Asamani, R. M. (2022). Effects of Political Interference on the Fight Against Corruption: A Case Study of the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Ghana. 

Future Goals: 

My dissertation (still in the early stages and yet to finish my coursework) is most likely to assess climate impacts on energy infrastructure; Justice considerations, policy assessment, and socio-economic impact. 

I hope to work as a Sustainability Manager in a community-centered organization preferably a government organization or CSO/NGO to drive sustainability initiatives. Away from this, I hope to run my own consulting company that focuses on addressing issues of social justice in energy transition systems, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, and as well work part-time in academia as a tutor and a researcher. 

A professional portrait of Miraj Kayastha.

Miraj Kayastha

Current Position/Status: 

Civil Engineering, PhD, Planning to defend in Spring 2025

Research Focus within C-CHARM: 

My research focuses on modeling the impact of climate change on the Great Lakes and its regional climate. Within C-CHARM, I contribute by analyzing historical climate data and providing future climate projections to fellow C-CHARM researchers in order to deepen our understanding of climate change and its impact on the Western Upper Peninsula.

Background: 

I earned my Master’s degree from Michigan Tech in 2021, majoring in Civil Engineering. Currently as a PhD candidate at Michigan Tech, I collaborate with my advisor Dr. Pengfei Xue. My research centers on the regional climate modeling of the Great Lakes, aiming to enhance our predictive understanding of the Great Lakes climate. Central to my work is the prediction of climate change’s impact on the Great Lakes. My published research covers the development of regional climate models, projections of Great Lakes water levels under climate change, developing future storylines for lake-effect snow storms, and the long-term reconstruction of Great Lakes surface temperature using deep-learning.

Current Projects: 

  • Evaluation of lake heatwaves in the Great Lakes
  • Development of a publicly accessible state-of-the-art future climate projection dataset for the Great Lakes

Achievements/Contributions:

Publications:

  1. Kayastha, M. B., Huang, C., Wang, J., Qian, Y., Yang, Z., Chakraborty, T., et al. (2024). How could future climate conditions reshape a devastating lake-effect snow storm? Earth’s Future, 12, e2024EF004622. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF004622
  2. Kayastha, M. B., Liu, T., Titze, D., Havens, T. C., Huang, C., & Xue, P. (2023). Reconstructing 42 Years (1979-2020) of Great Lakes Surface Temperature through a Deep Learning Approach. Remote Sensing, 15(17), 4253. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15174253
  3. Kayastha, M. B., Huang, C., Wang, J., Pringle, W. J., Chakraborty, T. C., Yang, Z., Hetland, R. D., Qian, Y., Xue, P. (2023). Insights on Simulating Summer Warming of the Great Lakes: Understanding the Behavior of a Newly Developed Coupled Lake‐Atmosphere Modeling System. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15(7), doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003620
  4. Kayastha, M. B., Ye, X., Huang, C., & Xue, P. (2022). Future rise of the Great Lakes water levels under climate change. Journal of Hydrology, 612, 128205. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128205 

Presentations:

  1. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, T., Qian, Y., and Hetland, R. (2024) How Could Lake-Effect Snow Storms Evolve in a Warming Future Climate? IAGLR 67th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, Windsor, Canada, May 20-24, 2024
  2. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, T., Qian, Y., and Hetland, R. (2024) How Could Lake-Effect Snow Storms Evolve in a Warming Future Climate? EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, April 14-19, 2024
  3. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, TC., Qian, Y. (2022) Amplified Warming of the Great Lakes due to Lake-Atmosphere Feedback Processes. AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, December 12-16, 2022

Future Goals: 

My next step in research would be to pursue my interest in climate modeling through a PostDoc position. I would like to potentially broaden my research area from the Great Lakes to something more global, while also improving my modeling and data analysis skills.

Wesley Beck

Current Position/Status: 

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Master’s, Expected Graduation Spring 2025

Research Focus within C-CHARM: 

How energy infrastructure is affected by climate change and how energy infrastructure combined with climate elements can affect our environment.

Background: 

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bachelor’s, 2024, Saginaw Valley State University

Created over one hundred videos for the circuits one course at Saginaw Valley State University under the guidance of Dr. Mohammad Khan and Dr. Yu Zou.

Current Projects: 

Modeling how electric lines can cause wildfires as well as the impact of wildfires on electric lines.

Achievements/Contributions: 

I presented a poster on a paper that I helped co-write while attending Saginaw Valley State University for Electrical and Computer Engineering. Link to ASEE Poster Presentation

Future Goals: 

Earn a PhD in Environmental Engineering at Michigan Tech.

Past Student Researchers

Isaiah Washington

Chuyan Zhao

Current Position/Status:

Graduated with her PhD in Spring 2024. Now Dr. Zhao continues work on the C-CHARM project as a postdoctoral scholar at the GLRC.

Research Focus within C-CHARM: 

I focus on understanding the impacts of climate change and climate extremes on the Great Lakes region by leveraging high-resolution, coupled hydrodynamic-ice-wave-land-atmosphere models. This work aims to resolve microclimates and extreme weather events, providing detailed projections of climate impacts at community and county scales to inform adaptation and resilience strategies.

Background: 

I earned my Ph.D. and M.S. in Harbor, Coastal, and Offshore Engineering from Dalian University of Technology, where I developed numerical models to study wave attenuation by vegetation and conducted physical experiments to validate these models. My research broadened during my time as a Visiting Graduate Student at MIT, where I investigated the effects of vegetation on sediment transport. While at MTU, I developed a data assimilation strategy to improve water temperature simulations and contributed to ecosystem process simulations in the Great Lakes.

Current Projects: 

  • C-CHARM
  • Long-term data assimilative, temperature and currents database for Lake Superior
  • Comparative Evaluation of Biophysical Models for Predicting Phytoplankton Dynamics and Harmful Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes

Achievements/Contributions:

Publications:

[1] Tang, J., Zhao, C., Shen, Y., 2019. Numerical investigation of the effects of coastal vegetation zone width on wave run-up attenuation. Ocean Engineering. 189, 106395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.106395

[2] Zhao, C., Zhang, Y., Tang, J., Shen, Y., 2020. Numerical investigation of solitary wave run-up attenuation by patchy vegetation. Acta Oceanologica Sinica. 39(5), 105-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13131-020-1572-6

[3] Zhao, C., Tang, J., Shen, Y., 2021. Experimental study on solitary wave attenuation by emerged vegetation in currents. Ocean Engineering. 220, 108414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2020.108414

[4] Zhao, C., Tang, J., Shen, Y., Wang, Y., 2021. Study on wave attenuation in following and opposing currents due to rigid vegetation. Ocean Engineering. 236, 109574. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2021.109574

[5] Zhao, C., Tang, J., Shen, Y., 2022. Numerical investigation of the effects of rigid emergent vegetation on wave runup and overtopping. Ocean Engineering. 264, 112502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.112502

[6] Ge, Z., Tang, J., Zhao, Z., 2022. Numerical study on influence of vegetation on bed shear stress under coastal waves. Haiyang Xuebao, 44(11)：111–120.

[7] Zhang, X., Zhao, C., Nepf, H., 2024. A simple prediction of time-mean and wave orbital velocities in submerged canopy. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 982(10), A3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2024.61

Presentations:
  • “Numerical study of the effect of Coastal Meadow Width on Wave Run-up Attenuation”
    • Evolution of wetland ecosystems in delta and bay areas: coupling of ecological processes and dynamic geomorphology
    • “River Delta and Coastal Area” Academic Conference, September 2019, Nanjing, China.
  • “Study on Influence of Currents on Regular Wave Attenuation due to Rigid Vegetation”
    • Hydraulics and River Dynamics, Marine Science and Engineering
    • The 594th Tsinghua University Doctoral Academic Forum, May 2020, Virtual.
  • “Study on Wave Attenuation in Following and Opposing Currents due to Rigid Vegetation”
    • Coastal hydrodynamics and coastal processes
    • The 8th International Conference on the Application of Physical Modelling in Coastal and Port Engineering and Science (COASTLAB2020), December 2020, Zhoushan, China.
  • “Experimental Study on Solitary Wave Attenuation by Emerged Vegetation in Currents”
    • Estuarine and Coastal Ecological Environment
    • Young and Middle-aged Academic Seminar on Port, Waterway, Coasts and Marine Engineering, June 2021, Qingdao, China
  • “Initiation of Sediment Resuspension by combined Wave-Current Conditions in an Artificial Seagrass Meadow”
    • Ecohydraulics and Ecomorphodynamics: Biophysical Interactions Across Scales in Natural and Engineered Aquatic Systems
    • AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting, December 2022, Chicago, IL
  • “Improved thermal structure and lake surface temperature simulation for Lake Superior using a data assimilative model”
    • Advances in Hydroclimate Modeling and Data to Support Great Lakes Adaptive Management
    • IAGLR’s 67th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, May 2024, Windsor, Canada
  • “Enhancing Short-Term Forecast Accuracy of Water Temperature in Lake Superior through Data Assimilation”
    • Ecological Forecasting as a Tool for Adaptation and Mitigation in Aquatic Ecosystems
    • ASLO (Association for the science of Limnology and Oceanography), June 2024, Madison, WI

Future Goals: 

My future goals include securing a tenure-track position where I can further explore the physical and ecological processes in both oceanic and lacustrine systems. I aim to deepen our understanding of these environments, focusing on how they respond to climate change and human impacts while contributing to the development of predictive models that support sustainable management and conservation efforts.