Our Team

The interdisciplinary SESTRA team consists of researchers with backgrounds in different natural and social science disciplines, artists, Indigenous scholars and knowledge-holders.

The Project involves students and early career scientists from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels in interdisciplinary research and fieldwork activities.

Researchers

Alexander Shiklomanov

Principal Investigator

Dr. Shiklomanov joined the Water Systems Analysis Group at the University of New Hampshire in 1997 and currently serves as a Research Associate Professor. The focuses of Alexander's research are on cold region hydroclimatology, hydrological and water management modeling and analysis. Research interests also include: hydrological monitoring systems; impacts of changes in climate and hydrology on human; effect of land cover and land use change on hydrology.

Vladimir Alexeev

Vladimir Alexeev is a Research Professor at the International Arctic Research Center of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Uses a hierarchy of models and observational data to study dynamics of climate. His research interests include climate dynamics, large-scale circulation of the atmosphere/ocean, hydrology, coastal processes, permafrost.

Lawrence Hamilton

Lawrence Hamilton is professor of sociology and senior fellow in the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. His research includes surveys and studies of human-environment interactions, in the Arctic and beyond.

Alexander Kholodov

Dr. Alexander Kholodov, Research Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Alexander's area of expertise is the thermal state of permafrost, cryostratigraphy, and soils. The main research interest is the ecological and social consequences of permafrost degradation.

Vera Kuklina

Vera Kuklina is an Indigenous scholar born and raised in a Buryat village in Siberia. She is a Research Professor at the Department of Geography at The George Washington University. Her research interests include urbanization of Indigenous people, traditional land use, socio-ecological systems, cultural geographies of infrastructure and remoteness. Her research is based on field studies and collaborations with local and Indigenous communities in the Baikal region, northern Mongolia and Alaska. Dr. Kuklina leads, co-leads and participates in the research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and Research Council of Norway. She also co-leads an ArtSLInK initiative, focused on convergence of science, arts, and place-based local and Indigenous Knowledge systems. Vera Kuklina is the author of about eighty publications including papers in Arctic Science, Environmental Research Letters, Polar Science, Polar Record, and Geoforum.

Mariia Kuklina

Mariia Kuklina, Postdoctoral Scholar (Ph.D., East-Siberia State University of Technology, Russia) is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the ARCTICenter. She is an expert in economic development in the Arctic, Siberia and Mongolia, digital Indigenous knowledge sharing networks and Indigenous social media, and tourism sector in remote regions. Over the past three years, Kuklina has participated in expeditions to remote areas of Tyva, Buryatia, and Sakha Republics, Magadan and Amur regions of Russia, as well as Mongolia.

Richard Lammers

Richard Lammers is a Research Associate Professor in the Earth Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire. He was one of the founding members of the Water Systems Analysis Group and has been Co-Director since 2008. The focus of Dr. Lammers’ research is understanding the dynamics of global and regional-scale hydrology with an emphasis on human interactions within the hydrological cycle. His recent work involves integrating hydrology with multi-sector dynamics of power generation systems, economic models and water rights to understand the resilience and vulnerability of the water, land, food, and energy systems. His research interests also include understanding the convergence of human and biogeophysical datasets, modeling, and analysis; the hydrological cycle at high latitudes; tracking glacier water through land surface hydrology; inter-basin hydrological transfers; coupling agent-based and physically-based models; future change; spatial datasets and geoprocessing; river networks; and techniques of Internet-based data serving and analysis.

Andrey N. Petrov

Andrey N. Petrov (PhD, Toronto; PhD, Herzen) is Professor of Geography and ARCTICenter Director at the University of Northern Iowa. Dr. Petrov is an economic and social geographer who specializes in Arctic economy and sustainable development, with an emphasis on changing social-ecological systems and sustainability in the Arctic. His current research is focused on sustainable regional and community development, spatial organization, and restructuring of Arctic economies amid rapid environmental change. Dr. Petrov leads the Research Coordination Networks in Arctic Sustainability (Arctic-FROST) and Arctic Coastal Resilience (Arctic-COAST), as well as multiple research projects in Alaska, Canada and Northern Eurasia. He has extensively published on issues pertaining to socio-ecological change, human-environmental relations, economy and demographic dynamics in the North. Dr. Petrov is a Past President of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) and Past Chair of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Social and Human Working Group. He currently sits on the International Arctic Science Committee and U.S. Polar Research Board.

Marya Rozanova-Smith

Dr. Marya Rozanova-Smith, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at The George Washington University. In addition to her work in academia, she participated in a wide range of social projects. She was the founder and chairperson of the Center for Civil, Social, Scientific, and Cultural Initiatives “STRATEGIA” and served as a Galina Starovoitova Fellow for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at the Kennan Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Dr. Rozanova-Smith has taught the Arctic Affairs course at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs since 2018.

Her current research interests include Arctic governance, impacts of climate change on Arctic communities, Indigenous Peoples empowerment, and gender equality in the Arctic regions.

Nikolay Shiklomanov

Nikolay (Kolia) Shiklomanov is a Professor of Geography at the George Washington University. He received an MA in Geography at SUNY Albany and a Ph.D. in Climatology at the University of Delaware. His main area of interest is permafrost and its interactions with natural and human systems. His research includes long-term permafrost observations in the high northern latitudes, permafrost-related process studies, and the effect of permafrost on human activity and infrastructure. He is also interested in the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in the Arctic. Since the early 1990s, he has been actively participating in fieldwork in the North American and Eurasian Arctic. Prof. Shiklomanov teaches courses in Physical Geography, Climatology, and Arctic Environments.

Research Assistants

Uyemaa (Emma) Gantulga

Uyemaa (Emma) Gantulga is a Data Scientist at The George Washington University, where her research operates at the intersection of energy systems, geospatial analysis, and machine learning. She brings proven experience as a renewable energy engineer at international organizations, including the Asian Development Bank and the Global Green Growth Institute, where she supported climate finance and infrastructure resilience. Within the context of the SESTRA Rivers project, Uyemaa applies her technical background to analyze the complex interactions between hydroclimatological changes and infrastructure in cold regions. Her work utilizes satellite imagery and data synthesis to model climate risks in the Selenge river basin, contributing to the project's goal of developing evidence-based adaptation strategies for riverine communities.

Maya Kaplun

Maya Kaplun is an undergraduate student at The George Washington University studying Environmental and Sustainability Science with a minor in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She previously worked as a legislative intern in the U.S. Senate for Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island. Having grown up in Rhode Island, she worked directly with environmental staffers on legislative research regarding climate resiliency and energy policy, particularly related to reconciliation and federal funding bills. In the future, she hopes to continue researching climate resiliency to support the implementation of equitable, science-based public policy.

Evan King

Evan King is an MS student studying Geography & Environment at The George Washington University. He received his BS in Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences from The Pennsylvania State University. He is joining the SESTRA research group, where his work focuses on atmospheric rivers, extreme precipitation, and flooding impacts in Arctic regions. In the future, he hopes to work in a climate preparedness or a meteorology role. In his free time, he often is spending time with his family, cheering on the Eagles and Sixers, and continuing to learn about meteorology and Earth’s climate systems.

Abraham “Brammy” Wagner

Alumnus

Collaborators

Erdenesukh Sumiya

Dr. Erdenesukh Sumiya is a Professor at the National University of Mongolia, specializing in the physics of boundary layers, meteorology, and climatology.

His primary research interests include the dynamics and principles of temperature inversions, the mechanisms of air pollution, and the impacts of climate change and climate variability.