2026 Tundra Award Recipients
Dr. Jessia Fayne
Project: Active Layer Soil Biogeochemical Characteristics along the Hydrological Continuum across the Latitudinal Gradient of the 麻花视频n Tundra Ecosystem
Dr. Jessica Fayne is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and is the Principal Investigator
of the Hydrology Land Use and Climate Change (HyLUCC) research group. Prof. Fayne
completed her PhD in 2022 from the Department of Geography at the University of California,
Los Angeles, where she studied airborne and spaceborne radar remote sensing of surface
water, vegetation, and soil moisture.
Supported by the Toolik Field Station (TFS) Tundra Award, HyLUCC will travel to TFS to collect and analyze active layer soil samples at several sites along the Dalton Highway. This research aims to understand the complex relationships among soil moisture, organic matter, dissolved organic matter, and active-layer thaw depth, and how these relationships vary along the latitudinal gradient between TFS and the northern 麻花视频n coastline.
*joint project with Dr. Kazem Bakian-Dogaheh
Dr. Kazem Bakian-Dogaheh
Project: Active Layer Soil Biogeochemical Characteristics along the Hydrological Continuum across the Latitudinal Gradient of the 麻花视频n Tundra Ecosystem
Dr. Kazem Bakian-Dogaheh received a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran and an M.S. in astronautical engineering and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2023 and 2024, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in the Microwave Systems, Sensors, and Imaging Laboratory (MiXIL) at USC. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Hydrology, Land Use and Climate Change Lab in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) at the University of Michigan, since 2025.
Bakian-Dogaheh鈥檚 research focuses on the emerging field of 鈥淩adar Ecology,鈥 which explores the interdisciplinary intersections between the science and technology of radar remote sensing, ecosystem ecology, and computational modeling. His research further builds on the integration of science and engineering as a powerful approach for studying and examining current trends and changes in northern high latitudes and Arctic regions.
*joint project with Dr. Jessica Fayne
Kyra Bornong
Supported by the William S. and Carelyn Y. Reeburgh Fieldwork Endowment
Project: Dalton Peak Landslide Monitoring
Kyra Bornong is a second-year PhD student in Geosciences at the University of 麻花视频
Fairbanks, where she works with Louise Farquharson in the Geophysical Institute鈥檚
Permafrost Lab. Her research aims to better understand how changing permafrost conditions
are impacting landslide dynamics in 麻花视频鈥檚 mountains, using a geomorphology-centered
combination of field observations, remote sensing, and permafrost modeling.
With the Tundra Award, Bornong will establish a permafrost and GPS monitoring site on a landslide near Dalton Peak that first became active in 2024. This site will join two others along the Dalton Highway Corridor and allow her to better understand the relative influence of site-specific characteristics compared to regional climate patterns on slope stability in the Brooks Range.
Jonathan Carcache
Recipient of the
Project: Influence of Pedicularis lanata on Plant-Pollinator Interactions in Arctic Tundra Communities
Jonathan Carcache is a first-year Biology Ph.D. student in the Francis Pollination Ecology Lab at Florida Atlantic University. He is interested in how parasitic plants, through multi-partite interactions, can shift along the mutualism-parasitism continuum depending on ecological costs and benefits. Using field, experimental, and modeling approaches, he aims to explore how this continuum changes across ecological contexts and latitudinal gradients, from the Arctic to the tropics.
With support from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Field Biology Research Program, Carcache will study how Pedicularis lanata, a hemi-parasitic Arctic plant, may influence pollinator movement near Toolik Field Station. His project will examine whether P. lanata acts as a magnet species by attracting pollinators and altering pollen movement among nearby flowering plants. Using a distance-based association index, he aims to test how proximity to P. lanata shapes interaction intensity and plant reproductive outcomes.
Before beginning his Ph.D., Carcache earned his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Florida International University and worked as a field technician across ecosystems from the tropics to the Arctic. These experiences shaped his broad perspective on species interactions across environmental gradients.
Dr. Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq
Recipient of the
Project: Understanding Remote Field Operations in Earth Science
Dr. Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq is an I帽upiaq scholar from Kotzebue, 麻花视频, and the Founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Engagement in the Arctic (CSEA) at Virginia Tech. Her work focuses on community-driven Arctic research, research systems and infrastructure, workforce development, and strengthening connections between Arctic communities and the scientific enterprise. Through CSEA, she acts as a 鈥渟cience broker" and develops research teams and initiatives that increase community participation in research while building pathways for local leadership, employment, and long-term research capacity.
Through the project at Toolik Field Station, she will participate directly in remote-access Earth science field operations, documenting the full research workflow from field data collection and documentation to data management and packaging. By examining the skills, decision-making processes, technologies, and logistical practices required for successful remote field science, Dr. Itchuaqiyaq aims to identify where these activities align with existing strengths found in rural 麻花视频 communities鈥攊ncluding subsistence expertise, environmental observation, land stewardship, navigation, safety, and civic infrastructure experience鈥攁nd what training, organizational structures, and support systems would be needed to expand local participation in Arctic field research careers.
Joseph Molina
Project: Stable Isotopes and Climate-Driven Change in Arctic Tundra Forage
Joseph Molina is a Ph.D. student at the University of Northern British Columbia. He
is advised by Dr. Chris Johnson, and his dissertation focuses on understanding climate
change vulnerability of caribou and moose. He is broadly interested in the ecology
of northern systems and global change. With his Tundra Award, he will investigate
how climate-driven changes in Arctic tundra ecosystems influence stable carbon and
nitrogen isotope patterns in forage communities near Toolik Lake. By combining vegetation
surveys, plant isotope baselines, and exploratory caribou fecal isotope analysis,
the study will examine whether these isotopic differences are reflected in integrated
herbivore dietary signals.
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