Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship

Rosie Gradoville (2021-2023)

Mary R. (Rosie) Gradoville is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Rosie’s research focuses on the ecology of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms in the oceans. She uses field-based approaches to better understand the biogeography and environmental controls of uncultivated nitrogen-fixers in the North Pacific. Rosie enjoys scientific writing and publishing and is excited to join the ASLO editorial team through the RCE Fellowship.

Rita Franco-Santos (2022-2024)

Rita Franco-Santos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia. Rita's research focuses on the potential of kelp-derived carbon (golden carbon) to contribute towards carbon sequestration and climate mitigation. She will combine experiments, laboratory analyses, and modeling approaches to try and trace the pathways and fate of golden carbon and the potential of kelp forests to be considered as a blue carbon ecosystem; and use these results to help inform policy on blue carbon in Australia. Rita is also very excited to use the opportunity offered by the RCE fellowship to engage her fellow early career researchers from countries in the Global South in the peer review process, especially those who do not speak English as a first language.

Erin Peck (2023-2025)

Erin Peck (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center in Amherst, MA, USA. Her research addresses the impacts of episodic sediment delivery events, sea level rise, and human land-use change on salt marsh morphodynamics and sediment biogeochemistry. As an RCEF, Erin is excited to learn from the ASLO editorial team and contribute to improving access to and transparency in academic publishing. Her research focuses on quantifying rates of vertical accretion and lateral change over decades to centuries in intertidal areas using short-lived radioisotopes and geospatial techniques

Frank Akamagwuna (2024-2026)

Frank Akamagwuna is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, South Africa. Frank’s research focuses on community ecology and ecosystem functioning of freshwater ecosystems, where he has explored multiple dimensions including trait-based biomonitoring and stable isotopes to monitor freshwater pollution. His current research interest is ecosystem ecology and emerging contaminants in river systems, focusing on plastic pollution. He applies socio-ecological approaches to understand better the impacts of emerging contaminants on biodiversity and society.

Jessica Turner (2025-2027)

Jessie Turner is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut. Jessie’s research focuses on water clarity, particles, and light in aquatic ecosystems from local to global scales.  Her current research focuses on remote sensing of phytoplankton types in the Southern Ocean to assess different species’ carbon uptake. She has also investigated how large particles export carbon in the deep ocean, how farmed oysters filter particles, how shoreline armoring impacts clarity in estuaries, and how clarity varies over decadal time scales in estuaries using observations, numerical modeling, and satellites.

Past Fellows

Bridget Deemer (2020-2022)

Bridget Deemer is a postdoctoral ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. As an aquatic biogeochemist, her research crosses scales to investigate how lakes and reservoirs can affect the transport and transformation of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other biologically relevant elements. She is also interested in the science/policy boundary and currently contributes scientifically to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

Scott Hotaling (2019-2021)

Scott Hotaling is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington State University. His research spans a variety of disciplines from community ecology to genome biology with a focus on high-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems. He is particularly interested in how climate change will affect alpine stream ecosystems in North America and is part of a team seeking to address this question using long-term data in the Teton Range of Wyoming.

Laura Falkenberg (2017-2019)

Laura Falkenberg is a marine biologist and ecologist. During her Fellowship term, Laura was initially a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Marine Biogeochemistry and Oceanography section at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and later an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research examines how human activities affect the physiology of marine biota, and how these responses then impact ecosystems and human societies

Kelsey Poulson-Ellestad (2018-2020)

Kelsey Poulson-Ellestad is Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biological, Physical, and Health Sciences at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. As an aquatic chemical ecologist, her research focuses on the influence of chemical signalling in planktonic interactions and the consequences of these interactions on community composition, primary productivity, and ultimately ecosystem functioning.