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.