Current Lidar Team

Dr. Shane D. Mayor
Dr. Shane D. Mayor, Professor

2001 Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Mayor specializes in atmospheric lidar and boundary layer meteorology.

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Dr. Pierre Derian

Dr. Pierre Dérian, Consultant

2012 Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from INRIA Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique.

Dr. Dérian worked full-time in the lidar group from December 2012 to December of 2014 and continues to serve as a part-time consultant from his home in Nantes, France.

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Mohammad Astaneh

Mohammad Astaneh, PhD student, UC Davis

2015 BS in Civil Engineering from Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
2019 MS in Environmental Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
2021 MS in Atmospheric Science from University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming

Mohammad is analyzing the REAL data from CHATS and M2HATS.

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Spencer Pollard

Spencer Pollard, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Spencer is double majoring in Computer Science and Physics and minoring in Mathematics. He's planning to graduate in May of 2024.

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Bruce Morley

Bruce Morley, Associate Scientist

BA in Physics from Chadron State College
MS in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Nevada-Reno.

Bruce supports the Chico State Lidar Research Group through the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

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Graduates

Alejandro Espinoza

Alejandro Espinoza, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Alejandro majored in Environmental Science with the degree option in Atmospheric and Climate Science.

He worked on the canopy waves from the fall of 2021 to the summer of 2022.

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Justin Hicks

Justin Hicks, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Justin majored in Environmental Science and graduated in May of 2023.

He worked in the lidar group during the 22-23 academic year and accepted a position at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

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Kevin Scheive

Kevin Scheive, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Kevin majored in Environmental Science with a degree option in Atmospheric and Climate Science and graduated in May of 2023.

He worked in the lidar group in the fall of 2022.

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Julia Colombini

Julia Colombini, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Julia majored in Environmental Science with a degree option in Atmospheric and Climate Science and graduated in May of 2023.

She worked in the atmospheric lidar research group in the fall of 2021.

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Nina Hong

Nina Hong, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Nina graduated with a BS in Environmental Science in May of 2022.

She participated in the atmospheric lidar research group in the 21-22 academic year.

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Katherine Mifsud

Katherine Mifsud, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Environmental Science, with emphasis in Atmosphere and Climate Science.

Katherine worked in the atmospheric lidar research group over the summer of 2021. She is now a graduate student at the University of Washington.

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Jillian Olivar

Jillian Olivar, Undergraduate Teaching Assistant

Chico State Major: Environmental Science, with emphasis in Atmosphere and Climate Science.

Jillian worked in the lidar group from 2016 - 2019, mainly as a grader for GEOS 170.

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Kyle Brownell

Kyle Brownell, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Physics and Computer Science

Kyle worked in the lidar group from May of 2016 to May of 2019. He is now a PhD student in the Richter Research Group at the University of Notre Dame.

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Chris Mauzey

Chris Mauzey, Programmer and Research Assistant

2010 B.S. in Computer Science from CSU Chico

Chris worked in the lidar group from September of 2010 to the summer of 2018. He now works at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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Lexi Smith

Lexi Smith, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Environmental Science

Lexi joined the lidar group in the summer of 2015 and graduated in May of 2017. She completed a master's at Yale University.

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Steve Samons

Steve_Samons, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics

Steve joined the lidar group in May of 2016 and graduated in May of 2017.

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Ryan Clare

Ryan Clare, Undergraduate Research Assistant

2016 B.S. in Environmental Science from CSU Chico

Ryan joined the lidar group in the summer of 2014 and graduated in May of 2016. He completed a master's at UW-Madison and is now a research scientist at the Marine Meteorology Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

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Masaki Hamada

Masaki Hamada, Lecturer

2007 B.S. in Physics from CSU Chico
2014 M.S. in Environmental Science from CSU Chico

Masaki joined the lidar team in September of 2012 and graduated in August of 2014. He evaluated the cross-correlation algorithm for his masters thesis. He was a lecturer in the Department of Physics and is now a teacher in Japan.

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Jason Stockton

Jason Stockton, Research Assistant

2015 B.S. in Physics from CSU Chico

Jason joined the lidar group in the summer of 2014. He assisted with maintenance of lidar hardware. He is a physicist at Naval Air Systems Command at China Lake.

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Tyson Randall

Tyson Randall, Graduate Researcher

2011 B.A. in Physics from UC Santa Barbara
2015 M.S. in Environmental Science from CSU Chico

Tyson worked in the lidar team from January of 2012 to July of 2015. He studied canopy waves in the CHATS data.

Tyson works for DataRay in Redding, California.

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Christopher Hasek

Christopher Hasek, Programmer and Research Assistant

2013 B.S. in Physics from CSU Chico
2015 M.S. in Computer Science from CSU Chico

Chris Hasek has worked in the lidar group since 2010. He completed a number of projects to facilitate the display of REAL data.

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Lena Heffern

Lena Heffern, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Majors: Physics and Mechanical Engineering; Graduation Date: May 2013

Lena worked in the lidar group in 2011 on mechanical engineering aspects of the REAL.

Lena completed a MS degree in Nuclear Engineering from University of New Mexico in 2015 and is now a PhD candidate at Arizona State.

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William (Gabe) Vivas

William (Gabe) Vivas, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Mechanical Engineering; Graduation Date: May 2013

Gabe joined the lidar team in May of 2012.

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Denton Scott

Denton Scott, Graduate Student in Electrical Engineering

2011 B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University
2012 M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from CSU Chico

Denton worked in the lidar group from Oct 2011 to Dec 2012. He developed a control system for the REAL as his MS thesis project and now a systems engineer at Target.

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Alan Rhoades

Alan Rhoades, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Environmental Science; Graduation Date: May 2012

Alan worked briefly in the lidar team during the spring of 2012. He installed the WRF model on the physics server.

Alan completed a PhD at UC Davis and is now a hydroclimate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

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Waleed Amjad

Waleed Amjad, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Computer Information Systems; Graduation Date: May 2011

Waleed worked in the lidar group from September to December of 2010. He processed REAL data from the 2004 deployment of REAL in Washington D.C.

Chris Van Hoosear

Chris Van Hoosear, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Majors: Mechatronic Engineering, Computer Engineering; Graduation Date: December 2010

Chris Van Hoosear worked in the lidar group from December to June of 2010. He refurbished the REAL's beam-steering unit in preparation for new mirrors and field operation.

Chris completed an MS in Computer Engineering/Robotics from University of the Pacific.in 2013 and is now an Engineering Manager at Spectranetix, Inc.

Terry McAfee

Terry McAFee, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: May 2010

Through PHYS 499, Terry developed a comprehensive understanding of the laser and optics in REAL. He helped set up the lidar at the University farm and moved all of the components from the old shipping container into the new one.

Terry completed a PhD in physics at NC State University and now a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

Zeb Wheeler

Zeb Wheeler, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Computer Science; Graduation Date: May 2010

Zeb investigated whether the Horn and Schunck (1981) technique could be applied to lidar images to estimate vector motion fields.

Zeb is now a Sr. Software Engineer at Blue River Technology.

Chris Griffo

Chris Griffo

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: May 2010

Chris Griffo helped set up the REAL at the University Farm during the spring of 2009.

He completed an MS in physics at CSU Fullerton in 2012, and is a Display Exploration Engineer at Apple.

Former (or currently inactive) Lidar Team Members

Kyle Mason

Kyle Mason, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Kyle is majoring in Environmental Science with the degree option in Applied Ecology.

He began working in the lidar group in the spring of 2023.

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Efrain Cobian

Efrain Cobian, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Efrain is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Chico State.

Efrain worked in the lidar group during the summers of 2021 and 2022.

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Emily Everton

Emily Everton, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Emily is majoring in Environmental Science with the degree option in Applied Ecology.

She worked in the atmospheric lidar research group in F21 and S22.

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Kirk Williams

Kirk Williams, Graduate Student

2019 B.S. in Physics from CSU Chico

Kirk was enrolled in the MS program in Environmental Science in the Spring of 2022.

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Maira Iqbal

Maira Iqbal, Graduate Student

2019 B.S. in Computer Science with minor in Mathematics from CSU Chico.

Maira worked in the atmospheric lidar research group during the summer of 2021.

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Nikolas Merrick

Niko Merrick, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Niko is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Chico State.

He worked in the atmospheric lidar research group during the summer of 2021.

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Naila Khan

Naila Khan, Graduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering

Naila worked in the lidar group during the autumn of 2015. She specialized in computer networking.

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Dr. Paul Arpin

Dr. Paul Arpin, Professor

2012 Ph.D. in Physics from University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dr. Arpin worked in the lidar group in the summer of 2014. He is now a Professor in the Department of Physics.

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Scott Gimbal

Scott Gimbal, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: May 2014

Scott worked with Dr. Anna Petrova-Mayor on polarization aspects of the REAL.

He is now a Software Development Engineer at Amazon.

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Thomas Schwab

Thomas Schwab, Mechanical Engineer

2012 B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Thomas worked in the lidar group from February to June of 2013 on a variety of mechanical engineering projects.

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Kevin Baker

Kevin Baker, Technician

2001 B.S. in Computer Information Systems from CSU, Chico
1987 A.A. in Business Administration from Santa Barbara City College
1985 A.S. in Electronic Technology from Santa Barbara City College

Kevin worked part-time to maintain the lidar research facility at the University Farm. He passed away in October of 2015.

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Liz Jachens

Liz Jachens, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Civil Engineering; Graduation Date: May 2014

Liz worked in the lidar group in 2011 and 2012. She started the canopy waves page.

Liz earned a PhD in Water Resources Engineering at Oregon State in 2020 and is now a hydrologist at USGS.

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Jim Schafer

Jim Schafer, Graduate Student

2001 B.S. in Geoscience from CSU Chico

Jim worked in the lidar group from January of 2012 to January of 2013 on the depth of the convective boundary layer in the northern California Central Valley.

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Rex Belli

Rex Belli, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: December 2012

Rex worked in the lidar group in 2011 and implemented algorithms to objectively identify the height of the convective boundary layer in the REAL RHI scans.

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Jen Lowe

Jen Lowe, Scientific Programmer and Data Analyst

Master's of Information Science from San Jose State University
B.S. in Applied Math from University of Arizona

Jen worked in the Lidar Group from April of 2010 to February of 2012. She wrote and used programs to process, analyze, and display the REAL data from CHATS.

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Forest Sears

Forest Sears, Student Research Assistant

Chico High School, Senior

Forest worked in the lidar group 2011.

He completed a BS in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT in 2016 and is now a Research Engineer at Prayog Labs.

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Steven Sun

Steven Sun, Student Research Assistant

Chico High School, Sophomore

Steven worked in the lidar group during July of 2011. He searched for canopy waves in RHI scans.

Steven completed a BA in Math in 2018 from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Chico State in 2022.

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Yibo Zhang

Yibo Zhang, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: May 2012

Yibo volunteered in the lidar group and learned how to write IDL programs.

William Meadows

William Meadows, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Majors: Computer Science, Applied Computer Graphics; Graduation Date: May 2012

During the spring and summer of 2010, Will developed and ran IDL programs to transform the REAL at CHATS data set into thousands of images and animations. Results of his project can be found at NSF Project Results.

You can read more about his subsequent work on his LinkedIn Page.

Esmeralda F. Ramirez

Esmeralda F. Ramirez, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Chico State Major: Journalism; Graduation Date: May 2012

Esmeralda produced graphics for journal articles and conference presentations. She also designed web pages and put content on them.

Esmeralda F. Ramirez

Shemu Nixon Ariyasivam

Chico State Major: Physics; Graduation Date: May 2011

Shemu helped set up the REAL at the University Farm and learned how the principles of the lidar transmitter work by taking PHYS 499.

He is a Help Desk Specialist at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California