Hi there!

Welcome to my site. I am an Environmental Scientist, and I study coupled human-ocean systems, with an emphasis on the design and evaluation of policy interventions that seek to conserve and manage natural resources. I am particularly interested in how policies and ecological processes shape human incentives, and how human actions modify the marine environment. I draw from my training in oceanography, ecology and environmental economics and combine geo-spatial, econometric, and machine learning methods into my research.

Note: I am in the process of revamping my website. In the meantime, you might find some broken links and outdated projects.

I am looking to recruit up to two fully-funded PhD students to join my lab at the University of Miami starting. The students should be broadly interested in using “Data Science” to quantitatively answer questions around the human dimensions ofmarine conservation and environmental change. While each student will have the freedom to identify their own questions, some active lines of inquiry include: 1) socio-ecological outcomes of large-scale marine conservation; 2) the effects of and adaptations to climate and weather hazards on fisheries; and 3) drivers and consequences of human use of ocean space and human mobility at sea.

The students will enroll in the PhD Program in Environmental Science and Policy administered between the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy and the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. Students will also have access to Data Science courses at the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. For more information on the application process, go here. Note that the deadline is January 8, but applications received by Dec 1 will have the highest chance of being invited to the on-site annual recruitment weekend visit in early February.

Please reach out to me via email at jc_villasenor at miami.edu. Ideally, the message body will include 1-2 sentences about your educational background, 1-2 sentences about your motivations for obtaining a PhD, and 1-2 sentences of your broad research interests, along with your CV.

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• jc_villasenor@miami.edu
• +1 207 205 8435
• 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149