Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program

MAY 2022 

Undergraduate 

Research: An Archive

Erik Peters ’22 

Founded in 1994 as the Princeton Environmental Institute, the High 

Meadows Environmental Institute advances understanding of the 

Earth as a complex system influenced by human activities, and 

informs solutions to local and global challenges by conducting 

groundbreaking research across disciplines and by preparing future 

leaders in diverse fields to impact a world increasingly shaped by 

climate change. 

Cover page photos clockwise from top left: 

Aria Buchanan ’22, Grace Barbara ’22, Pooja Parmar ’22, Richard Ma ’22 

and Willow Dalehite ’22 

1

Undergraduate Research: 

An Archive 

Celebrating independent work on environmental 

topics by students in the Class of 2022 

The High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) is 

pleased to present an archive of environmental research 

projects completed by students in the Class of 2022. 

During their time at Princeton, the students whose work 

is profiled in this booklet have been affiliated with HMEI 

as participants in the Certificate Program in 

Environmental Studies, and/or received support from 

HMEI for field research associated with their senior 

independent projects. 

As a volume, this compendium reflects the great variety 

of environmental research pursued by seniors from 9 

academic disciplines on topics including climate and 

environmental science, conservation and biodiversity, 

health and disease, environmental policy, agriculture, 

urban sustainability and the environmental humanities. 

HMEI congratulates the students on their individual 

achievements and for their contributions to the body of 

environmental research being undertaken at Princeton 

to advance understanding and solutions at a time when 

environmental issues are among the most urgent 

challenges facing society and the planet. 

2

Index of Students 

(Alphabetical) 

Grace Barbara 9 

Jeffrey Barzach 34 

Aria Buchanan 24 

Luisa Chantler Edmond 17 

Sean Crites 10 

Emily Cruz 18 

Willow Dalehite 11 

Ryan Eusebi 5 

Maria Fleury 35 

Aliza Haider 27 

Madison Hamilton 12 

Katherine Irelan 36 

Jessica Lambert 19 

Connor Larson 28 

Richard Ma 31 

Jalah Morris 29 

Katryna Niva 6 

Pooja Parmar 20 

Erik Peters 13 

Hannah Reynolds 14 

Adelina Rolea 7 

Katherine Ross 21 

Maria Russo 25 

Ruth Schultz 22 

Kajsa Souter 32 

Tatijana Stewart 33 

Yael Stochel 15 

Cathy Teng 8 

Bryan To 16 

Keely Toledo 23 

Claire Wayner 30 

Emily Yu 26

Index of Student Research 

by Category (Alphabetical) 

CLIMATE AND 

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 

Ryan Eusebi 5 

Katryna Niva 6 

Adelina Rolea 7 

Cathy Teng 8 

CONSERVATION AND 

BIODIVERSITY 

Grace Barbara 9 

Sean Crites 10 

Willow Dalehite 11 

Madison Hamilton 12 

Erik Peters 13 

Hannah Reynolds 14 

Yael Stochel 15 

Bryan To 16 

ENVIRONMENTAL 

POLICY AND SOCIETY 

Luisa Chantler Edmond 17 

Emily Cruz 18 

Jessica Lambert 19 

Pooja Parmar 20 

Katherine Ross 21 

Ruth Schultz 22 

Keely Toledo 23 

HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Aria Buchanan 24 

Maria Russo 25 

Emily Yu 26 

NEW ENERGY FUTURE 

Aliza Haider 27 

Connor Larson 28 

Jalah Morris 29 

Claire Wayner 30 

URBAN PLANNING AND 

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES 

Richard Ma 31 

Kajsa Souter 32 

Tatijana Stewart 33 

WATER AND THE 

ENVIRONMENT 

Jeffrey Barzach 34 

Maria Fleury 35 

Katherine Irelan 36

CLIMATE AND 


THESIS TITLE 

Neural Network-based 

Model to Describe 

2-dimensional Tropical 

Cyclone Wind Fields 

ADVISER 

Gabriel Vecchi, 

Professor of 

Geosciences and the 

High Meadows 

Environmental Institute 

Ryan Eusebi ’22 

COMPUTER SCIENCE 

Certificate in Environmental Studies 

Many existing studies have demonstrated the 

power of machine learning-based models for 

geoscience and environmental models, especially 

those that attempt to predict or describe 

geophysical fluid events. However, very little 

research has used machine learning models to 

describe or predict 2-dimensional hurricane 

wind fields, which would benefit from fast and 

accurate modeling. My research demonstrated 

how a simple deep neural network using a small 

subset of easy to forecast parameters could be 

capable of describing 2-dimensional tropical 

cyclone wind fields for storms simulated in a 

high-resolution atmospheric model. The average 

absolute value error of the network across the 

grid of windspeeds for a given storm is about 2.1 

meters per second (m/s) for tropical storms and 

2.6 m/s for hurricanes. These figures outperform 

common parametric models such as the Holland 

vortex model by a factor of 2-3 depending on how 

intense the storm is. The network also works well 

when applied to a variety of climate scenarios, 

and it tends to recover most of the important 

structural and climatological features of tropical 

cyclones. I presented analyses of the neural 

network model to explain the patterns the neural 

network is learning and how accurate those 

learned relationships were. 

5

THESIS TITLE 

Natural Halogenated 

Methane Production in 

Mangrove Ecosystems 

ADVISER 

Satish Myneni, 

Professor of 

Geosciences 

Katryna Niva ’22 

CHEMISTRY 

Certificate in Environmental Studies; Senior 

Thesis Research Funding Awardee 

As sea-level rise, extreme weather and 

groundwater overuse accelerate the 

encroachment of seawater into freshwater coastal 

areas, it is important to understand the resulting 

shifts in soil chemistry. Previous research has 

found that as freshwater wetlands face increased 

marine influence, there is a corresponding uptick 

in the emission of halomethane, which degrades 

the Earth’s ozone layer. This correlation — which 

is associated with the overlap of high levels of 

both organic carbon and the halogens within 

seawater — prompted my research into mangrove 

forests. These forests are exceptional in their 

ability to sequester immense levels of organic 

carbon (despite inhabiting a saline environment), 

to retain contaminants in protection of local 

communities, and to stabilize coastal sediments. 

I examined soil samples collected across varying 

depths and locations within two Panamanian 

mangrove forests in order to understand the 

current rate and intensity of halomethane 

emission, and to ultimately project how further 

exposure to seawater may impact this emission 

rate. 

CLIMATE AND 


6

CLIMATE AND 


THESIS TITLE 

Behavior of 

Perfluorinated Sulfonic 

Acids (PFOS and PFBS) 

in Bromine-treated 

Soils 

ADVISER 

Satish Myneni, 

Professor of 

Geosciences 

Adelina Rolea ’22 

CHEMISTRY 



Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances 

(PFAS) are a family of chemical pollutants 

that are persistent and ubiquitous in the 

environment. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) 

and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are 

regulated because of their links to cancer 

and pregnancy complications, but lesser 

understood short-chain compounds such 

as perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS) are 

not. Consequently, there is much interest 

in determining the environmental fate of 

these compounds and their behavior in soil. 

Previous studies have shown that the addition 

of bromide (Br-) enhanced the rapid breakdown 

of natural chlorinated compounds. My goal was 

to determine if PFOS and PFBS also experience 

rapid breakdown when exposed to Br- in 

different natural conditions. Ultimately, neither 

dehalogenation nor the breakdown of PFOS or 

PFBS was observed; however, in some cases, high 

amounts of PFOS adsorbed onto soils after Br- 

exposure. My research corroborated the findings 

of previous studies showing that the addition 

of Br- results in a significant decrease in total 

chlorine concentration in oxic A-horizon soils. 

Finally, the total elemental composition of the 

soils studied underwent unique and statistically 

significant changes in concentration after the 

addition of Br- and in the presence of PFOS or 

PFBS under different environmental conditions. 

7

THESIS TITLE 

Deploying Deep 

Learning to Estimate 

the Abundance of 

Marine Debris From 

Video Footage 

ADVISER 

Constantinos 

Hadjistassou, 

Associate Professor of 

Engineering, University 

of Nicosia 

Cathy Teng ’22 



The ubiquity of plastic goods in modern society 

has led to the omnipresence of synthetic 

materials in the marine environment. To address 

the problem of plastic pollution, I developed 

an image classifier based on the YOLOv5 deep 

learning tool that can classify and localize 

plastic debris and marine life in images and 

video recordings. The image classifier, when 

augmented by the region-of-interest line and 

centroid-tracking counting methods, was able 

to count plastic debris and fish displayed in 

video footage. The centroid tracking method 

achieved a counting accuracy of 79% and 

proved more efficient due to its ability to track 

the geometric centers of the bounding boxes 

of detected objects. Additionally, the proposed 

classifier achieved a mean average precision 

of 89.4% when validated for nine categories of 

objects. This method’s impact could be enhanced 

substantially if it is integrated into other 

surveying methods or applications. 

CLIMATE AND 


8

Grace Barbara ’22 

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 


CONSERVATION 

AND BIODIVERSITY 

THESIS TITLE 

From Bare to Brilliant: 

The Migration of Fish 

Species to a Newly 

Deployed Artificial Coral 

Reef Ecosystem in 

Delray Beach, Florida 

ADVISER 

Stephen Pacala, 

Frederick D. Petrie 

Professor in Ecology 

and Evolutionary 

Biology 

Artificial coral reefs are becoming increasingly 

relied upon as alternatives for reef fish due to the 

declining health of living corals. An artificial 

reef consisting of 13 reef balls was deployed 

off of Delray Beach, Florida, in January 2021. 

I examined how this artificial reef site was 

colonized by marine species over a 12-month 

period. I found that species richness increased 

logarithmically over time and followed the shape 

of the species-time curve of the theory of island 

biogeography. A comparison between species 

compositions of the artificial reef and a nearby 

living-reef site found that these reefs shared 59% 

of their species, suggesting species migration 

from the living to the artificial reef. My thesis 

adds to the limited research on how artificial 

reefs are colonized and grow corals, sponges and 

algae, which contributes to understanding of how 

artificial reefs are utilized by reef fish species in 

South Florida. 

9

Sean Crites ’22 


Senior Thesis Research Funding Awardee 

THESIS TITLE 

Smelling for 

Consumption: An 

Investigation of the 

Genetic Underpinnings 

of Host-Odor Preference 

in Culex pipiens 

Mosquitoes 

ADVISER 

Lindy McBride, 

Assistant Professor of 

Ecology and 

Evolutionary Biology 

and Neuroscience 

Culex pipiens, or the common house mosquito, 

offers an opportunity to investigate host 

preference because it exists as two behaviorally 

different forms: the bird-preferring pipiens and 

the mammal-preferring molestus. I worked with 

my adviser to collect C. pipiens individuals in 

the Schuylkill River Park area of Philadelphia 

in summer 2021 using paired traps baited with 

synthetic human and chicken odor blends. We 

found that the C. pipiens population was wellmixed, 

but due to concentration errors with 

the odor blends, there was no consistent allelic 

differentiation between individuals collected 

from mammal- and chicken-baited traps. Despite 

these challenges, we identified between 42-253 

single nucleotide polymorphisms that were 

divergent between paired chicken- and mammalbaited 

traps. Two genes — ionotropic receptor 

25a and odorant receptor 203 — were promising 

candidates for additional study. Future research 

should investigate these genes and identify 

additional genes associated with host preference 

to elucidate C. pipiens’ transition from preferring 

birds to humans. 

CONSERVATION 


10

Willow Dalehite ’22 


Becky Colvin '95 Memorial Awardee; Senior Thesis 

Research Funding Awardee 

CONSERVATION 


THESIS TITLE 

The Effect of Experience 

on Duet Coordination in 

Carolina Wrens 

(Thryothorus 

ludovicianus) 

ADVISER 

Christina Riehl, 


Ecology and 


Vocal duetting in birds is a form of 

communication between two members of a 

mated pair. In songbirds, it often occurs in 

species with a tropical life history, including the 

temperate Carolina wren. Various hypotheses for 

the function of duetting have been investigated 

in other species, but little is known about its 

fitness role in Carolina wrens. I investigated 

whether duet coordination is a learned behavior 

that could signal experience defending territory 

or investment in the pair bond. I tracked and 

recorded the songs of wrens in forests around 

Princeton’s campus. I then converted these audio 

recordings into spectrograms that allowed me to 

visualize the frequency and duration of duets, 

as well as how synchronized male and female 

songs are. I compared duets in pairs containing 

at least one adult to pairs consisting of only 

year-old birds (hatch-years). I found that age did 

not impact duet coordination, but in new pairs, 

duets became slightly more coordinated over a 

short period of time. My results shed light on the 

possible functions and evolutionary explanations 

for duetting behavior in Carolina wrens, and I 

proposed that non-adaptive hypotheses based on 

the evolutionary lineage of the species are worthy 

of consideration. 

11

Madison Hamilton ’22 



THESIS TITLE 

Seeing Double: The Role 

of Third-party Social 

Dominance Mimicry as a 

Driver of Plumage 

Similarity in Hairy and 

Downy Woodpeckers 

ADVISER 

Mary Caswell (Cassie) 

Stoddard, Associate 

Professor of Ecology 


Biology 

Hairy and downy woodpeckers exhibit an 

intriguing case of plumage mimicry. The 

third-party social dominance mimicry (TSDM) 

hypothesis suggests that the subordinate downy 

mimics the larger, dominant hairy to gain a 

foraging advantage, as well as a higher socialdominance 

ranking than expected. I tested 

this hypothesis using two downy woodpecker 

replicas: A good mimic that closely resembles 

the plumage patterning of the hairy and downy, 

and a poor mimic that lacks their distinctive 

plumage patterning. I placed these replicas on 

a bird feeder one at a time and recorded birds’ 

behavioral interactions with each. I analyzed 

these interactions and found that third-party 

species showed trends indicating they were 

more afraid of the good replica. Additionally, I 

constructed a social dominance hierarchy of the 

birds in my experiment and found a correlation 

between body mass and dominance ranking, 

although I did not find enough evidence to 

support the idea that the downy exhibits a 

higher dominance ranking than expected for its 

mass. These results provided some support for 

the TSDM hypothesis, but further research is 

necessary to fully explore its validity. 

CONSERVATION 


12

Erik Peters ’22 

ECONOMICS 


CONSERVATION 


THESIS TITLE 

Wolves and Wheels: The 

Effect of Yellowstone's 

Wolf Reintroduction on 

Deer-Vehicle Collisions 

ADVISER 

Andrea Wilson, Lecturer 

in Economics 

My thesis examined the economic impact of 

wolf reintroduction by evaluating associated 

decreases in vehicle collisions with deer. Previous 

literature has found significant reductions in 

deer-vehicle collisions after the reintroduction 

of a large predator. I found that while wolf 

reintroduction was associated with a significant 

decrease in the deer population, wolves have not 

reduced deer-vehicle collisions in the average 

Wyoming county with statistical significance. 

This adds to the broader scholarly conversation 

quantifying the economic costs and benefits of 

predator conservation and reintroduction, which 

are often indirect and difficult to measure. 

13

Hannah Reynolds ’22 

ANTHROPOLOGY 

Certificate in Environmental Studies; Smith 

Newton Scholar 

THESIS TITLE 

Defining the Tongass 

National Forest: Land 

Rights and Forest 

Management in 

Southeast Alaska 

ADVISERS 

Jerry Zee, Assistant 

Professor of 

Anthropology and the 

High Meadows 

Environmental 

Institute; Christiane 

Fellbaum, Lecturer with 

the Rank of Professor in 

the Council of the 

Humanities, the 

Program in Linguistics, 

and Freshman 

Seminars 

My senior thesis centered around the question 

of “What is a forest?” with the focus on the 

United States’ oldest and largest national forest 

— as well as the only remaining unfragmented 

temperate rainforest in the world — Tongass 

National Forest in Southeast Alaska. I sought 

to understand how the forest is constituted 

and valued by different groups of people who 

live in, work in and depend upon the Tongass, 

from tribal leaders to elected officials and 

conservationists. At present, much of the 

political discourse related to managing the forest 

is framed in economic terms, whether related 

to roadbuilding, timber, tourism or commercial 

fishing. The Tongass, however, also is a huge 

source of resilience, culture and community for 

the people who live there. Through this thesis, 

I hoped to highlight the nuances of life in the 

Tongass through ethnographic methods and by 

analyzing prior discourse on settler colonialism, 

ecological knowledge and Indigeneity with the 

intent of providing a new path for managing the 

Tongass that prioritizes the needs of local and 

Native peoples. 

CONSERVATION 


14

Yael Stochel ’22 



CONSERVATION 


THESIS TITLE 

Making Models and 

Mining Mimics: Insights 

From Computer Vision 

Into How Biological 

Systems Solve Visual 

Problems 

ADVISER 

Daniel Rubenstein, 

Class of 1877 Professor 

of Zoology, Professor of 

Ecology and 


The butterfly genus Heliconius exhibits 

Mullerian mimicry, in which unrelated toxic 

species evolve to share one another’s warning 

signals as a defence against predators. A 

common point of contact between biology and 

computer science uses machine learning and 

computer vision to classify species. Building 

upon previous work in this field, my research 

sought to expand classification to capture the 

biological mechanisms underlying mimicry. By 

modifying the training methods and inputs used 

in machine learning, computer vision is capable 

of creating representations of natural systems of 

mimicry. One approach — which modified the 

training method — trained classification on one 

Heliconius species before testing on its mimic in 

order to approximate the training and learning 

process undertaken by avian predators in the 

wild. The other sought to account for the visual 

complexities of butterfly mimicry by adjusting 

the visual acuity of the images to better represent 

butterfly and bird vision. These methods were 

successful, with significant results indicating 

that the model effectively represented the 

mimicry system. 

15

Bryan To ’22 




THESIS TITLE 

A Contemporary Look at 

the Aquarium Trade for 

Wild-caught and 

Captive-bred Saltwater 

Fish 

ADVISER 

David Wilcove, 

Professor of Ecology 


Biology and Public 

Affairs and the High 

Meadows 


The multimillion dollar saltwater aquarium-fish 

trade poses many potential threats to marine 

wildlife and the environment. Sustainable 

practices such as aquaculture and captive 

breeding could benefit marine communities, 

but studies and data on globally imported 

aquarium fish are lacking. My research examined 

four elements of the aquarium fish trade: The 

percentage of aquarium fish species available 

as captive-bred or wild-caught; the price 

differentials for species available as both; the 

traits that correlate with a species’ availability 

as captive-bred; and the traits that correlate 

with wild-caught fish pricing. Species and 

price information and prices extracted from 

online aquarium dealers were combined with 

traits listed in the species database FishBase 

and the IUCN Red List. More than 10% of 612 

assessed species across three dealers were 

available as captive-bred and captive-bred fish 

were significantly cheaper than wild-caught. 

There also was significant correlation between 

species’ traits and the likelihood of captive-bred 

availability, as well as with the price of wildcaught 

fish. These results helped identify the 

factors that influence the aquarium-fish trade 

and provided a deeper understanding of the 

industry that could allow for a better balance 

of the demand for the aquarium trade with the 

conservation of marine wildlife and ecosystems. 

CONSERVATION 


16

Luisa Chantler Edmond ’22 

ANTHROPOLOGY 


ENVIRONMENTAL 


THESIS TITLE 

Earning Our Stripes: 

Environmental 

Sustainability in the 

NCAA 

ADVISER 

Jeffrey Himpele, 

Director, Ethnographic 

Data Visualization Lab, 

Anthropology, Lecturer 

in Anthropology 

My thesis project was both paper and podcast. I 

was interested in the experiences of Princeton 

college athletes in the context of the relationship 

that college athletics has with sustainability 

and environmentalism. During the course of 

my senior year, I recorded eight episodes for an 

ethnographic podcast series called “Earning 

Our Stripes.” I posed questions to fellow 

Princeton student athletes about their personal 

experiences with the conditions as an NCAA 

athlete. In undertaking this project I delved into 

the environmental policies (or lack thereof) of 

the NCAA and the impact that student athletes 

can have on influencing their institutions with 

respect to sustainability and environmentalism. 

To that end Episode Four of Earning Our Stripes 

contains an interview with Alix Barry where we 

discuss the NCAA and the environment. 

17

Emily Cruz ’22 

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 


THESIS TITLE 

Modeling the Carbon 

Emissions of Financing 

Policies of Major 

Financial Institutions 

ADVISERS 

Chris Greig, Theodora 

D. ’78 & William H. 

Walton III ’74 Senior 

Research Scientist in 

the Andlinger Center for 

Energy and the 

Environment; Ian 

Bourg, Assistant 

Professor of Civil and 

Environmental 

Engineering and the 

High Meadows 


My research evaluated how the policies of 

financial institutions regarding fossil fuel 

industries and sustainability ventures may 

influence these institutions' future carbon 

emissions. Financial institutions are key to 

bringing global carbon emissions to net-zero 

by 2050 because their financing will directly 

influence the future energy mix. Many financial 

institutions have touted net-zero goals and 

instituted policies that include divesting from 

fossil fuels, committing to invest in renewableenergy 

products, and allowing consumers to 

invest in more sustainable or renewable ventures. 

I compiled data on bank policies from the 

Rainforest Action Network’s “Banking on Climate 

Chaos” report to model future financing for fossil 

fuel industries, as well as collect and visualize 

cumulative sustainability commitments. My 

models projected that the banks I analyzed 

will likely increase fossil fuel investments, 

particularly in fossil fuel companies expanding 

their production or utilization of fossil fuels. 

There was, however, a slight projected decrease 

in some banks’ carbon emissions intensity, 

likely due to the change in the type of fossil fuel 

invested in over time. This research highlighted 

the importance of having strict guidance for 

banks' fossil fuel financing that ensures the 

implementation of policies that will reach 2050 

net-zero goals rather than policies that amount to 

“greenwashing.” 

ENVIRONMENTAL 


18

Jessica Lambert ’22 

ANTHROPOLOGY 



ENVIRONMENTAL 


THESIS TITLE 

Defending Our Freedom: 

The U.S. Military, 

Environmental 

Contamination, and 

Ongoing Native Land 

Theft in the Choctaw 

Nation 

ADVISERS 

Ryo Morimoto, 


Anthropology; John 

Higgins, Associate 

Professor of 

Department of 

Geosciences 

Relatively little is known about environmental 

contamination on American Indian reservations 

in the United States, yet the problem is 

widespread in Indian Country. I used ArcGIS 

Online to uncover 1,250 Superfund sites — 

sites with uncontrolled hazardous waste — on 

or within five miles of 302 Tribal Nations. I 

then investigated the environmental health 

of a town on the reservation of my Tribe, the 

Choctaw Nation, where the United States 

military decommissions old bombs through 

daily detonations. I evaluated and documented 

contamination of Choctaw water, land and air by 

testing surface and tap water, as well as installing 

and monitoring air sensors. At the same time, 

I used anthropological field research and 

interviews to explore Choctaw experiences of this 

contamination and its adverse health effects. I 

argued that these environmental assaults on the 

Choctaw Nation are an expression of the ongoing 

theft of Native land aided by the politicization of 

environmental data and inadequate regulations. 

19

Pooja Parmar ’22 

ECONOMICS 


THESIS TITLE 

Is Recycling the Best 

Method for Waste 

Management: An 

Analysis of the 

Environmental and 

Economic Impacts of 

Recycling (2009-2018) 

ADVISER 

Andrea Wilson, Lecturer 

in Economics 

Waste management has become a priority issue 

as a result of China’s 2017 ban on contaminated 

plastics. As landfills have reached capacity, 

recycling has been the default method for 

waste management for decades. Despite the 

continued investment of local governments into 

developing recycling programs, limited research 

has been conducted into the environmental 

and economic benefits of recycling. My thesis 

attempted to evaluate the impact of municipal 

solid waste (MSW) on environmental factors (air 

quality, fuel consumption and net generation) 

and economic factors (real GDP) in seven states: 

Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, 

New Jersey, Oregon and South Carolina. At a 

state level, recycling led to better air quality 

and had a positive effect on real GDP, but it also 

increased fuel consumption and net generation. 

However, when using a fixed-effects ordinary 

least squares (OLS) model using county-level 

data, I found that recycling has no effect — or 

only a small positive impact —on environmental 

and economic factors, while increased access to 

recycling has a negative impact on GDP. These 

results are important for informing future wastemanagement 

policies that attempt to transition 

away from recycling toward reduce-and-reuse 

processes. 

ENVIRONMENTAL 


20

Katherine Ross ’22 

ECONOMICS 


ENVIRONMENTAL 


THESIS TITLE 

You Versus Me: The 

Effect of Primary 

Language Verb 

Conjugation on 

Tolerance Attitudes and 

Altruistic Behaviours 

ADVISER 

Alessandro Lizzeri, 

Professor of Economics 

Language is a critical means of communicating 

thoughts and emotions, but we still have much 

to learn about the extent to which a person’s 

linguistic background can influence the way they 

think about and perceive the world. Evidence 

in favor of the linguistic relativity hypothesis 

has found that language influences people’s 

color perception, open-mindedness, and saving 

behavior. My research sought to contribute to 

this debate by using responses from the most 

recent World Values Survey to test whether the 

structure of verb conjugation in a respondent’s 

primary language shapes how they relate to 

other people, in this case measured as their 

reported tolerance attitudes and altruistic 

behavior. I found that speakers of languages 

that do not distinguish between persons in 

their verb conjugation tend to be more likely to 

value unselfishness, less averse to living next to 

people who are different from themselves, more 

accepting of immigrants, and more likely to care 

about the environment. Except for the finding 

related to the environment, my results remained 

robust at the within-country level and when 

controlling for cultural confounds. 

21

Ruth Schultz ’22 

INDEPENDENT LINGUITICS 


THESIS TITLE 

Collective Circus 

Project: Take Care 

ADVISER 

Jane Cox, Professor of 

the Practice, Theater in 

the Lewis Center for the 

Arts 

The end product of the Collective Circus Project 

was an original contemporary circus show 

created and directed by everyone in the cast and 

performed live Feb. 4-6, 2022, in the Wallace 

Theater at Princeton’s Lewis Arts Complex. The 

aim of this project was to create a show centered 

around the ways in which young people from 

diverse backgrounds and life experiences find 

sustainability — or its absence — in our lives. 

Beyond just the show being about sustainability, 

we also aimed to make the creative process 

itself sustainable. We drew from scholarship 

on the intersections of social justice and the 

rapid technological and infrastructural changes 

necessary to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 

2050 to understand “sustainability” as a term 

that necessarily includes not just climate, but 

also sustainability in our communities, our close 

relationships, and the way we treat ourselves. 

ENVIRONMENTAL 


22

Keely Toledo ’22 

ANTHROPOLOGY 


ENVIRONMENTAL 


THESIS TITLE 

Tó éi iiná: Water Is Life, 

Navajo Nation Water 

Sovereignty, and Making 

Kin With Pipelines 

ADVISER 

Serguei Oushakine, 

Professor of 

Anthropology and 

Slavic Languages and 

Literatures 

My research focused on understanding how 

Native and Indigenous people react and interact 

with pipeline infrastructure. From the fierce 

protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline at 

Standing Rock in 2016, to the construction of the 

Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project implemented 

by the Navajo Nation, I traced what Native 

interaction with pipelines looks like and how 

each case reflects a unique set of circumstances. 

Yet, to speak of pipelines is also to speak of water 

and our relations. If water is life, our life is water; 

if one of us dies, we all die, such is the nature 

of intertwined existences. With such life and 

death stakes, it is easy to understand why one 

might risk or dedicate their life to protecting and 

ensuring access to water. Either way, when we 

live in a precarious changing world, decisions 

must be made to bring about or ensure a future 

we desire, even if it is not what we expect. 

23

Aria Buchanan ’22 



THESIS TITLE 

Mapping Variation in 

Duffy Blood Group by 

Local Environmental 

Factors in Northwestern 

and Central Kenya 

ADVISER 

Julien Ayroles, 


Ecology and 


and the Lewis-Sigler 

Institute for Integrative 

Genomics 

The Duffy negative genotype confers protection 

from Plasmodium vivax malaria by inhibiting 

the receptor through which P. vivax invades 

red blood cells. Positive selection for the Duffy 

negative phenotype has caused high frequencies 

of the Duffy negative allele in sub-Saharan 

Africa, but differences between local populations 

have not been sufficiently studied. My study 

mapped allelic variation in 220 individuals from 

32 locations in northwestern and central Kenya 

by temperature, precipitation and altitude to 

understand if differences in local environments 

drive selection at the Duffy locus. I hypothesized 

that selection for the Duffy negative phenotype 

would be greatest in areas most suitable for 

malaria transmission on a regional scale. 

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel analysis 

showed significantly higher malaria infections in 

northern Kenya, but not a higher frequency of the 

Duffy negative allele in this region. I found little 

variation in allele frequencies between locations, 

suggesting that regional environmental 

factors do not drive selection at this locus. The 

increasing urbanization of central Kenya and 

migration of individuals to urban centers likely 

explain this genetic similarity. Further studies 

should test this hypothesis to better understand 

how changing environmental conditions — 

including migration and urbanization — shape 

Duffy allele selection. 


24

Maria Russo ’22 




THESIS TITLE 

Household 

Hypercarnivores: 

Modern Trends in 

Commercial Cat Food 

Composition and 

Implications for the 

Health of Domestic Cats 

(Felis catus) 

ADVISER 

Daniel Rubenstein, 

Class of 1877 Professor 

of Zoology, Professor of 

Ecology and 


Cat ownership is on the rise at an unprecedented 

rate and the pet food market has consequently 

grown and increased in value at record levels. 

These trends are coupled with a rise in the 

popularity of plant-based diets in humans, 

leading to a growing interest in plant-based cat 

foods as well. However, several issues within 

companion-animal nutrition research and the 

commercial pet food industry have allowed for 

the propagation of formulations that may be 

inadequate or unsafe for feline nutritional needs, 

with potential causative links to common feline 

health issues. For my thesis, I compiled available 

research on feline commercial diets, nutritional 

needs, dietary-derived health concerns, and 

the shortcomings of commercial formulations, 

particularly with respect to plant-based diets. 

The synthesis of these findings exposed chronic, 

widespread quality and standardization issues in 

the pet-food industry and in the manufacture of 

plant-based diets for house cats, and determined 

links between nutrient imbalances and feline 

health conditions. 

25

Emily Yu ’22 



THESIS TITLE 

The Relationship 

Between the Gut 

Microbiome and 

Immunity Phenotypes in 

Northern Elephant 

Seals (Mirounga 

angustirostris) 

ADVISER 

Bridgett vonHoldt, 


Ecology and 


Pups of the northern elephant seal (Mirounga 

anguistirostris) offer a unique opportunity to 

explore host-pathogen-microbiome interactions. 

My research assessed gut microbiome 

differences between pups infected with 

lungworm (Otostrongylus circumlitus) and 

uninfected pups. Alpha- and beta-diversity 

metrics were conducted to identify the factors 

driving differences in microorganism diversity. 

Taxonomic composition and differential 

abundance analyses also were conducted to 

investigate microbiome composition. There was 

conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis 

that infected pups would exhibit dysbiosis, 

which is decreased microbial diversity with an 

increased abundance of pathogenic bacteria. 

While infected pups had a higher abundance of 

the pathogenic bacterium Edwardsiella tarda, 

they also exhibited greater median richness 

and evenness, had the same core microbiome 

as uninfected pups, and possessed a significant 

increase of a commensal bacterium Odoribacter. 

My findings also showed that both extrinsic and 

intrinsic factors drove beta-diversity differences 

and that, surprisingly, an environmental factor 

(county of stranding) explained the greatest 

proportion of variance. 


26

Aliza Haider ’22 

CHEMISTRY 


THESIS TITLE 

Non-immunoglobulin 

Scaffolds as Research 

Tools for Protein 

Structure and Function 

Analysis 

ADVISER 

José Avalos, Assistant 

Professor of Chemical 

and Biological 


Andlinger Center for 

Energy and the 

Environment 

Non-immunoglobulin (non-Ig) scaffolds are a 

class of small, synthetic non-antibody binding 

proteins. The field of scaffold engineering has 

rapidly advanced due to the advantages these 

scaffolds have over antibodies, including — but 

not limited to — their smaller size, heightened 

thermal stability and lower production costs. 

More than 100 new synthetic scaffolds have been 

designed largely for biochemical intervention 

with pharmaceuticals and other medical 

therapies. Simultaneously, these same scaffolds 

have recently been used as protein research tools 

as a result of their high affinity and specificity 

to target molecules. These characteristics 

have allowed non-Ig scaffolds to become key 

instruments in crystallization, binding resins 

and assays, and imaging technologies, among 

others with implications for environmental 

research. 


27

Connor Larson ’22 

OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND FINANCIAL 

ENGINEERING 


THESIS TITLE 

Improving Mobility and 

Sustainability With 

Electric Regional 

Aircraft 

ADVISER 

Robert Vanderbei, 

Professor of Operations 

Research and Financial 

Engineering 

While air travel is a key component of American 

mobility, aviation is a significant contributer to 

America’s carbon footprint and rural citizens 

lack the same access to air travel as their urban 

counterparts. Economic pressures and rising 

oil prices have led to a reduction in regional air 

service across the United States. Electric regional 

aircraft may offer a solution to these challenges 

by bringing sustainable aviation to a broad set 

of communities at a lower cost than traditional 

jetliners. My research explored the optimal 

routing of these aircraft with a focus on mobility 

and sustainability improvements. I proposed 

a model based on technical targets for aircraft 

debuting in the next 10 years that projected a 

decrease in average trip times by over an hour 

and a 10% decrease in carbon emissions, with 

even greater impacts for short-distance trips. 


28

Jalah Morris ’22 

CHEMISTRY 


THESIS TITLE 

Electrodeposited 

Nickel-enhanced 

Alloyed Electrocatalysts 

for CO2 Reduction 

ADVISER 

Andrew Bocarsly, 

Professor of Chemistry 

The demands of climate change push the 

need for electrocatalysts capable of carbon 

dioxide reduction to value-added products at 

high faradaic efficiencies. My work focused 

on the nickel enhancement of the known 

(Cr2O3)3(Ga2O3) electrocatalyst and the 

undeveloped MnGa2 system. Various glassy 

carbon substrates were nickel-plated using 

a Watts bath electrodeposition method. 

Optimization efforts were made for the nickelplating 

procedure. Nickel-plating was most 

uniform and consistent between 600 -1,800 s. 

Nickel-plating on glassy carbon was observed 

at potentials as low as -0.75 V vs Ag/AgCl. 

(Cr2O3)3(Ga2O3) and MnGa2 were synthesized 

on the nickel-plated glassy carbon substrate. 

Bulk electrolysis experiments were undertaken 

to assess the catalyst’s ability to reduce CO2. The 

morphology and composition of the deposited 

nickel with and without the two catalysts were 

evaluated using SEM and XRD. 


Ni-enhanced (Cr2O3)3(Ga2O3) yielded 1-butanol 

at a faradaic efficiency of 64% along with acetic 

acid and acetone at a potential -1.45 V vs Ag/ 

AgCl. While (Cr2O3)3(Ga2O3) on electrodeposited 

nickel yielded methanol, formate and acetic acid. 

The MnGa2 on deposited nickel yielded ethanol 

consistently with a Faradaic efficiency as high 

as 1.82% along with methanol, acetic acid and 

formate at a potential of -1.38 V vs Ag/AgCl. These 

catalysts in the presence of nickel reduced CO2 to 

products unknown to these specific systems. 

29

Claire Wayner ’22 



THESIS TITLE 

Optimization of Biomass 

Feedstock and 

Bioenergy Facility Siting 

for a Net-zero U.S. 

Energy System 

ADVISER 

Jesse Jenkins, 


Mechanical and 

Aerospace Engineering 

and the Andlinger 

Center for Energy and 

the Environment 

Bioenergy technologies are an important 

component of a net-zero energy system that 

use biomass as an energy source, while also 

capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide to 

mitigate climate impacts. Significant research 

has been conducted using macro-energy system 

modeling on the regional and national potential 

for bioenergy in the United States. These results 

are yet to be downscaled to a more granular 

spatial distribution in order to fully understand 

the local impacts of a bioenergy economy. My 

research built upon the results of a macro-energy 

system model to create spatially optimized 

county-level networks of biomass and bioenergy 

production for the continental United States. 

The resulting distribution favored a local and 

decentralized production model wherein most 

infrastructure exists in close proximity to 

both energy demand and carbon dioxide (CO 2 

) 

sequestration networks in order to minimize 

transport costs. Several sensitivity analyses 

illustrated that changing the type and price of 

biomass supply can shift production to different 

parts of the country. Determining these key 

inputs — location of energy demand, available 

CO 2 

sequestration networks, and a preference for 

the type of biomass utilized — can thus have a 

significant influence on the spatial development 

of a bioenergy system in the United States. 


30



THESIS TITLE 

The Branching Effects 

of Urban Green Spaces: 

Analyzing Inequitable 

Distribution and 

Gentrification in New 

York City 

ADVISER 

Joan Monras, Visiting 

Research Scholar, 

Economics and the 

International 

Economics Section, 

Lecturer in Economics 

Richard Ma ’22 

ECONOMICS 


Urban green spaces are increasingly touted as a 

measure to increase the health of city residents. 

At the same time, cities are turning to greenspace 

projects as economic incentives, inspired 

by successful projects such as New York’s 

High Line. Scholars, however, are concerned 

that urban green spaces may not be equitably 

distributed and may lead to gentrification. My 

research examined overall green spaces in New 

York City by looking at geospatial data of tree 

canopy and grass/shrub cover in 2010 and 2017. 

For each year, I investigated the relationship 

on a block-group level between green space and 

a number of socioeconomic factors: median 

income, the percentage of people with a 

bachelor’s degree or higher, median rent, and 

the percentage of white residents. I performed a 

difference-in-difference regression for the change 

between 2010 and 2017 to identify potential 

gentrifying trends. I quantified inequities that 

occur and the relationships between a block 

group’s change in green space and its change 

in demographics. This study expanded on the 

current literature by examining the interactions 

between green space and demographics at a 

detailed block group level, which at this level 

quantifies the relationships between green space 

and various socioeconomic factors. 

31

THESIS TITLE 

Towards a Walkable 

Periphery: Improving 

the Walkability of 

Australian Suburbia 

ADVISER 

Mario Gandelsonas, 

Class of 1913 Lecturer 

in Architecture, 

Professor of School of 

Architecture 

Kajsa Souter ’22 

ARCHITECTURE 


Modernist urban planning unreservedly 

prioritizes the private car and has created 

an urban fabric that is environmentally 

unsustainable and reduces the social and 

economic opportunities of the city. My thesis 

criticized the historical emphasis on automobile 

accessibility and proposed a transition to 

walkability that would enhance urban vitality. 

The challenge for policymakers and professionals 

is how to encourage, design and fund walkable 

cities that are environmentally, economically 

and socially sustainable. The spatial patterns 

of Australian cities are amenable to supporting 

more walkable urbanism. I drew on the distinct 

history of Australian cities to identify the 

benefits and design qualities that encourage 

walkable urbanism, then outlined a pathway 

to improving the walkability of Australian 

suburbs. The qualities of older inner-city suburbs 

that promote walkability must be expanded 

to the urban peripheries, which begins with 

determining the specific design features that 

make these spaces desirable. I applied design 

features that encourage walkability to two case 

studies, Keperra and Grovely stations, which are 

situated in two low-density residential suburbs 

of Brisbane. Given their access to the city, these 

stations have the potential to act as transit nodes 

and commercial centers for the surrounding 

neighborhood and reduce automobile 

dependency in these two car-orientated suburbs. 



32



THESIS TITLE 

Equity Policy Versus 

Practice in the 

Sustainable Building 

Movement 

ADVISER 

Marshall Brown, 


School of Architecture 

Tatijana Stewart ’22 

ARCHITECTURE 


In 2016, Newark, New Jersey, began pursuing 

Leadership in Energy and Environmental 

Design (LEED) green-building certification, 

signifying the city’s commitment to sustainable 

urbanism. My research used LEED greenbuilding 

rating systems as an entry point to 

look closely at Newark’s specific urbanism as 

shaped by a history of community organizing in 

the face of racialized associations with — and 

contestations of — place and capital. My thesis 

aimed to unpack and critique the relationship 

between the social-equity goals of green urban 

development and the existing sociopolitical 

identity of the city related to equity. I argued 

that a truly equitable approach to sustainable 

building must be informed by — and account 

for — the specific factors of the past that shaped 

the place in which green building practices 

are being operationalized. I investigated the 

Newark’s specific conceptualization of social 

equity as being shaped by: community activism 

related to housing rights during the Civil 

Rights Movement; by disinvestment driven 

by neoliberalism in the 1990s; and by a postrecession 

renewal agenda beginning in the late 

2000s. My thesis deconstructed the dominant 

“three-pillars” of sustainability framework — 

economy, environment and social equity — and 

offered a more locally oriented and equity-centric 

alternative approach. 

33

Jeffrey Barzach ’22 

CHEMISTRY 


THESIS TITLE 

Destroying Pollutants 

With Visible Light Using 

UiO-Series Metal- 

Organic Frameworks 

ADVISER 

Michele Sarazen, 


Chemical and Biological 

Engineering 

Wastewater pollution has become a globally 

problematic issue, increasing the need for more 

efficient and sustainable methods of aqueous 

pollutant removal. Photocatalysis using metalorganic 

frameworks (MOFs) has emerged as one 

such method in which MOFs absorb light energy 

to degrade pollutants. Current MOF-based 

photocatalytic applications typically involve 

UV irradiation, which is energy-intensive and 

costly; optimizing MOFs for visible light usage 

is much more desirable. My study investigated 

three strategies for optimizing the visible-light 

degradation efficiency of the zirconium-based 

UiO-series MOF (UiO-66 and UiO-67) for the 

degradation of a model wastewater pollutant, 

methylene blue dye. These strategies included 

altering crystal size; expanding pore size via 

linker modulation; and incorporating copper 

as a secondary metal. Altering crystal size 

and incorporating copper were relatively 

ineffectual due to the tendency for small-particle 

agglomeration in the former and independent 

copper dendrite depositions inherent to the 

latter. Linker modulation through the use of UiO- 

67 — rather than UiO-66 — was more effective 

and promising due to UiO-67’s strong initial 

adsorptive properties and increased pore sizes 

that allowed for improved internal active site 

usage. 

WATER AND THE 

ENVIRONMENT 

34

Maria Fleury ’22 



WATER AND THE 

ENVIRONMENT 

THESIS TITLE 

Changing Water 

Availability in the São 

Francisco River Basin, 

Brazil: Exploring the 

Role of Expanding 

Agriculture and Climate 

Change 

ADVISER 

Reed Maxwell, 

Professor of Civil and 

Environmental 


High Meadows 

Envrionmental Institute 

Human activities such as agriculture depend 

on and also can substantially affect water 

availability. Therefore, it is a concern that 

water resources are quickly being depleted in 

regions that already experience drought, such 

as the São Francisco River basin in Brazil. My 

thesis explored how the growth of large-scale 

agriculture — in the face of climate change — 

affects water availability at the São Francisco 

River basin and its sub-basins of the Alto, 

Submédio, Médio and Alto São Francisco rivers. 

My work quantified trends in agricultural 

land-use, climate patterns and decreased 

water resources by combining remote-sensing 

observations of land-use change, water surface 

area and center pivot irrigation by MapBiomas, 

GRACE observations of total water storage, and 

GLDAS climate reanalysis data. I combined 

and analyzed climate and land-use datasets to 

estimate the water used by center pivot irrigation 

systems. I found that across the São Francisco 

River basin agricultural land-use is growing, air 

temperature is increasing, and rainfall and water 

storage are decreasing. I found that the depletion 

of water resources is most pronounced in the 

Médio and Alto São Francisco sub-basins, where 

I also observed the largest growth in agriculture 

and center-pivot irrigation. 

35

Katherine Irelan ’22 


Becky Colvin '95 Memorial Recipient; Senior 


THESIS TITLE 

How a Plant Survives: 

The Effect of Soil 

Resources on Fungal 

Symbionts of a 

Hawaiian Ericaceous 

Shrub (L. tameiameiae) 

ADVISER 

Lars Hedin, George M. 

Moffett Professor of 

Biology, Professor of 

Ecology and 


and the High Meadows 


Plant-fungal symbiotic relationships are integral 

to the survival of plant species. Two fungal 

symbiont types, ericoid mycorrhizae and dark 

septate endophytes, are not very well understood. 

Ericoid mycorrhizae are assumed to be a primary 

reason for members of the ericaceous family 

— their obligate plant partners — to be able to 

survive in a variety of harsh environments that 

other plant families are not able to withstand. 

Dark septate endophytes commonly occur 

in ericaceous roots, but have been shown to 

have contradictory effects on plant growth. I 

explored how one plant species, Leptecophylla 

tameiameiae, adjusts its fungal relationships 

in order to grow in a variety of environmental 

conditions along a natural rainfall gradient in 

Hawaii. I found that the colonization rate of both 

ericoid mycorrhizal and dark septate endophyte 

remains largely the same across changes in 

rainfall, but that the composition of fungal taxa 

in L. tameiameiae roots shifts dramatically. 

From this, I could conclude that L. tameiameiae 

has a consistent reliance on its fungal partners 

regardless of environment, but that the function 

of those partners likely adjusts based on specific 

needs. 

WATER AND THE 

ENVIRONMENT 

36

Acknowledgements 

THE PROGRAM IN 

ENVIRONMENTAL 

STUDIES AND 

UNDERGRADUATE 

ENVIRONMENTAL 

RESEARCH IS 

GENEROUSLY 

SUPPORTED BY: 

The Barron Family Fund for Innovations in 

Environmental Studies 

The Becky Colvin Memorial Award 

The Charles W. H. Dodge ’51 Fund 

Edmund Hayes, Sr. ’18 Fund 

The High Meadows Environmental Institute 

Fund 

Newton Family High Meadows 

Environmental Institute Scholars Fund 

Bob and Cathy Solomon Undergraduate 

Research Fund 

John H. T. Wilson ’56 and Sandra W. Wilson 

Fund 

37

High Meadows Environmental Institute 

Princeton University, Guyot Hall 

Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003 

environment.princeton.edu 

environment@princeton.edu 

facebook.com/PrincetonEnviro 

twitter.com/PrincetonEnviro 

instagram.com/princetonenviro 

youtube.com/HighMeadowsEnvironmentalInstitute 

linkedin.com/company/princetonenviro

Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?