Ewel Postdoctoral Fellows
2026-2028 Ewel Fellow
Dr. Varsha Bhaskaran
Varsha Bhaskaran, Ph.D, works at the intersection of Urban Ecology and Conservation Social Science to grasp the human dimensions of urban green spaces: how people interact with them and how those relationships shape biodiversity and ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing tropical cities. As a Ewel Postdoctoral Fellow, she will join the UF Residential Landscape Ecology Lab under Dr. Basil V. Iannone III to study residential gardens as socio-ecological infrastructure supporting pollinator diversity, habitat connectivity, and ecosystem services across socio-economic gradients in Bengaluru, India.
2024-2026 Ewel Fellow
Dr. Aline Giroux
Aline Giroux, Ph.D., combines animal physiology, movement ecology, and landscape ecology to better understand the impacts of climate and land-use change on wildlife, informing biodiversity conservation. Dr. Giroux’s research explores the importance of forests as thermal refuges, investigating how extreme weather conditions and deforestation affect mammal movement patterns and, ultimately, survival. As an Ewel Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Giroux is mentored by Dr. Denis Valle, faculty member in the School of Forest Resources and Conservation.
2022-2024 Ewel Fellow
Dr. Cindy Cosset
Cindy Cosset, Ph.D., works at the intersection of community ecology, movement ecology and landscape ecology to investigate how species move and persist across landscapes. Dr. Cosset’s research aims to understand how species’ ecological traits can be used to inform landscape connectivity models to guide reforestation initiatives in tropical forests. As an Ewel Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Cosset is mentored by UF IFAS faculty, Dr. Brett Scheffers, Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation.
2018-2020 Ewel Fellow
Dr. Anya Brown
Anya Brown, Ph.D., combines community ecology, microbial ecology and evolutionary ecology to ask questions about species interactions. Dr. Brown's research aims to understand how host-microbial systems respond to stress to inform conservation decisions. While an Ewel Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Brown was mentored by UF IFAS faculty, Drs. Julie Meyer, Soil and Water Science Department and Thomas Frazer, School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
2016-2018 Ewel Fellow
Dr. Ariana Corrales Osorio
Ariana Corrales Osorio, Ph.D., studies the ecology and evolution of ectomycorrhizal communities associated to tropical tree species and how ectomycorrhizal associations influence ecosystem functioning in tropical forests. While a Ewel Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Corrales Osorio was mentored by UF IFAS faculty, Dr. Matthew Smith, Department of Plant Pathology.