Prof. Dr. Claudia I. Czimczik
Dr. Czimczik received her undergraduate and graduate education in Germany. She obtained a Diplom in Geoecology from the University of Bayreuth (1999) and a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry and Friedrich-Schiller-University (2003) in Jena. She joined UCI’s Department of Earth System Science (ESS) as a researcher in 2003, and the faculty in 2011.

Current Graduate Students

Lurui Niu joined the group in 2023. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with B.S. in Earth System Science and Biological Science. During her undergrad, she aimed to investigate the source appointment of aerosols in Canada’s tar sand region. Then, she earned a master’s degree in Biogeochemistry and Pollutant dynamics from ETHz, Switzerland. At ETHz, she primarily assisted with the geoscience group and handed on the latest instrument for radiocarbon measurements: MICADAS.  Now at UCI, Lurui is interested in aerosol studies from many aspects: 1) isotope-based source appointment of aerosol; 2) how sustainable aviation fuels and advanced jet engines are changing the microphysical properties of aerosols.

Allison Welch joined in 2020 with a broad interest in studying how biogeochemical cycles and other aspects of terrestrial landscapes are changing in response to climate change and other disturbances. She graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Environmental Science with minors in Geology and Wildlife Ecology. During her undergrad, she primarily assisted with paleoclimate research with a focus in geochemistry of fossil corals. She worked on many other projects that spanned applied wildlife management and conservation genetics. Allison’s research explores the implications of shrub expansion into Arctic graminoid tundra systems. She is co-advised by Drs. Claudia Czimczik and Alex Guenther.

Cindy Yañez joined the group in 2019 after graduating from the University of California, Riverside with a BS in Physics. She is interested in the interplay between climate change and urban environments, as well as the associated social injustices. Cindy uses the isotopic and element content of grasses to assess spatial patterns of fossil fuel-derived carbon dioxide and air pollutant emissions, particularly along urban to rural gradients near major metropolitan areas (e.g. the Los Angeles Megacity). In collaboration with UC Riverside, she is been conducting mobile surveys of greenhouse gases and air pollutants in Southern California to study spatiotemporal patterns of emissions and the evolving efficiency of the urban traffic fleet.

Current Postdoctoral Researchers
NA

Current Undergraduate Students
Ian Bachant
Julia Brestyansky
Angelu Lesaca
Yuan Liu
Nicole Nielsen

We are STEM majors, incl. chemists, biologists, and geo-, earth, and environmental scientists. If you are interested in joining us, please contact us at czimczik@uci.edu. We are always looking for talented UCI undergraduates (e.g. EarthSS199), future graduate students, and postdocs! 

Former Group Members

Postdoctoral Researchers
Shawn Pedron; now at Pattern AG (spedron@uci.edu)
Sandra Holden
(NOAA Climate and Global Change Fellow); now at Stanford University (sandra.holden@stanford.edu)
Max (Massimo) Lupascu; now at National University of Singapore (mlupascu@nus.edu.sg)
Simon Fahrni (KCCAMS Postdoc Fellow), now at Ionplus AG (fahrni@ionplus.ch)

Graduate Students
Audrey Odwuor (PhD 2021), now at California Air Resources Board (CARB)
Shawn Pedron
(PhD 2021), now at Pattern AG
Blanca Rodríguez
(PhD 2021), now at South Coast Air Quality Management District
Clayton Elder (PhD 2017), now at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (clayton.d.elder@jpl.nasa.gov)
Gergana Mouteva (PhD 2016), now at Boeing

Recent Undergraduate Students
Dennis Melka
Jazmin Romero
Giselle Jimenez (B.S. Earth System Science, 2023)
Yezzen Khazindar (B.S. Earth System Science, 2022)
Lurui Niu (B.S. Earth System Science & Biological Sciences, 2020)

Brittney Martinez (B.A. Social Ecology with a Minor in Earth and Atmospheric Science, 2020)
Hao Han (B.S. Earth System Science, 2020)
Malissa Tayo (B.S. Earth System Science with a Minor in Global Sustainability, 2020)
Carla Mendez (B.S. Earth System Science with a Minor in Global Sustainability, 2018)
Tiffany Nguygen (B.S. Earth System Science, 2018)
Matthew Schweiger (B.S. Earth System Science with a Minor in Biomedical Engineering, 2018)
Junior G. Mazariegos (B.S. Earth System Science, 2015)
Jaenna Wessling (B.S. Earth System Science, 2015)
Grace Mortero (B.S. Earth System Science, 2015)