Research Staff

Mauricio Avila-Segura
Honorary Associate Fellow | mavila@wisc.edu
Research on nutrient recovery and upcycling technologies associated with the Barak Lab and Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling LLC. Also work as a Tropical Soils Consultant in Central and South America and has extensive experience on methods of soil analysis, soil fertility and crop nutrition. And, last but not least, year-round outdoors enthusiast.

Jim Beaudoin
Software Engr/Developer IV | jmbeaudoin@wisc.edu | 608.262.7201

Nick Bero
Research Specialist | njbero@wisc.edu | 608.263.4529
Nick’s work is divided between Drs. Soldat and Arriaga research programs. He assists with field, greenhouse, and laboratory experiments in Dr. Soldat’s lab in pursuit of optimizing resource inputs in turfgrass systems and understanding and improving urban soils. For Dr. Arriaga’s lab, Nick establishes and performs research that addresses forage and grain production management systems to improve productivity and soil health while reducing impacts to water quality.

Tim Berry
Scientist II | tdberry@wisc.edu | 608.264.4850

Daniel Bidikov
Software Engr/Developer II | bidikov@wisc.edu

Thomas Bodden
Research Specialist | tbodden@wisc.edu
Thomas has an MS in Geology from Michigan Technological University. Currently he is working with the Ruark Lab to oversee field and lab processes involving plant and soil health, with a focus on nitrogen fertilizer management. In his free time, he enjoys art, music, collecting rocks and minerals, and exploring/hiking in nature.

Laura Ward Good
Scientist III | lwgood@wisc.edu | 608.262.9894
Laura leads the development of the nutrient management planning software, SnapPlus. Her research focuses on agricultural runoff phosphorus loss risk assessment.

Zoë Goodrow
Research Specialist | zoe.goodrow@wisc.edu
Zoë is a wildlife biologist with a master’s from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. She currently manages the Freedman Lab. She is interested in interactions between soil life and wildlife – specifically the connections between soil microbiomes and animal gut microbiomes.

Heather Inzalaco
Research Specialist | inzalaco@wisc.edu | 608.395.9838
Heather is interested in wildlife conservation and disease ecology as it pertains to the surveillance and management of infectious diseases with zoonotic potential. More specifically, she is keen on how behavior, land-use change, and environmental and climate variables influence the interactions between hosts and pathogens and drive disease transmission. She is studying how host behaviors influence environmental contamination and indirect transmission events of chronic wasting disease. She combines field sampling with biochemical and molecular biology techniques to evaluate the relative magnitude of chronic wasting disease prions in mechanical vectors and environmental reservoirs (i.e., soil) for indirect transmission.

John Jones
Researcher III | jjones58@wisc.edu

Kelsey Kruger
Research Specialist | kmkruger2@wisc.edu
Kelsey is a Research Specialist for the Whitman Lab. She received her MS in Agroecology from UW-Madison and her BS in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems from UC Davis. She is interested in carbon cycling and ecosystem services. In her free time, she enjoys birding, gardening, and cooking.

Stuart Lichtenberg
Scientist and Lecturer | stuart.lichtenber@wisc.edu | 608.265.4850
Stephen Owusu
Herb Massey Visiting Scholar | sowusu2@wisc.edu
Stephen is a visiting scholar from Ghana who is working with Professor Alfred Hartemink on Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) and development of Pedotransfer Functions (PTFs) using soil data from Ghana and the wider African continent.

Harry Read
Assistant Scientist | hwread@wisc.edu | 608.265.4848

Geoff Siemering
Outreach Specialist | geoff.siemering@wisc.edu | 608.262.9969

Mattie Urrutia
Teaching Faculty III | urrutia@wisc.edu | 608.263.4778

Rick Wayne
Software Engr/Developer III | fewayne@wisc.edu | 608.263.3288

Joe Wolter
Software Engr/Developer III | jwolter@wisc.edu | 608.265.9354

Yakun Zhang
Scientist | zhang878@wisc.edu