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  • Zachary holding a fish in the water

    Zachary Witzel, large river fisheries ecologist

  • Friends of PRI honorees Dave Thomas and Bill Shilts stand with their plaque

    William W. Shilts and David L. Thomas, 2022 Friends of PRI Award

    Each year PRI honors individuals and organizations whose support contributes to the institute's success. This year we're commemorating the contributions of William W. Shilts and David L. Thomas, who played pivotal roles in the formation of the institute.   

  • Wei Dang

    Wei Dang, water resource engineer

    Wei Dang earned her Master of Geographic Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2022. Following graduation, she joined PRI as a Water Resource Engineer. Her primary responsibilities revolve around using GIS methodologies to present water resource data and information on surface water in a visually intuitive and accessible manner. She also works on the geospatial analyses of water resources systems, aiming to streamline water resources planning and management.  

  • Walt Kelly poses for a photo at the awards ceremony.

    Walton R. Kelly, 2024 Research Scientist Career Achievement Award recipient

    Walton R. Kelly is the recipient of the Prairie Research Institute’s 2024 Research Scientist Career Achievement Award, which recognizes the achievements of a PRI scientist whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact over the course of their career.

  • Undergraduate Research Symposium

    Congratulations to all of the undergraduate students presenting at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 28 and the PRI scientists who mentored them! 

  • Tyler Pierson, hydrologist

  • Tony Schutz

    Tony Schutz, primary desktop support

    The Computing and Data Services (CDS) team welcomes new staff member, Tony Schutz, as the primary desktop support. Tony has been working with PRI part-time for the past eight years and has now joined us as a full-time employee. He will be the primary desktop support person for staff at the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS), but will be pitching in on desktop support across PRI and helping the CDS server team as well. Tony is a familiar face for sure, and we’re very glad to have him as a full-time member of the team.

  • Toby Holda

    Toby Holda, large river fisheries ecologist

    Toby Holda joined INHS on April 25th as a large river fisheries ecologist. Holda worked at INHS during his undergraduate career and looks forward to sampling fish in the field, especially the long toothy fishes (gars, bowfin, etc.). He's also looking forward to continuing working with the folks at the Illinois River Biological Station and to the opportunity to continue developing his research skills.

  • Tara Jagadeesh

    Tara Jagadeesh, Coastal Studies Specialist

  • Tanner Jones

    Tanner Jones, irrigation and hydrology specialist

    Tanner works with the Illinois Water Inventory Program (IWIP), specifically on the irrigation side to find new ways to collect water usage figures that can help us understand the water status and water needs around the state and work on the data side to pair irrigator information with the information existing in the Water Survey. He also helps to communicate water usage analysis to the general public.

  • A woman in sunglasses stands in front of a pool of water.

    Sunita Mahat, visiting scientific specialist

    Introducing Sunita Mahat, a visiting scientific specialist in GIS at the Illinois State Geological Survey. Sunita shares insights into her role in the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Inventory and Characterization Project, her passion for using technology to address environmental challenges, and her advice for aspiring GIS analysts.

  • Stephany Virrueta Herrera

    Stephany Virrueta Herrara, INHS graduate student

  • Stephanie Schmidt

    Stephanie Schmidt, INHS graduate student

  • Stefan Ilic, visiting scientific specialist

    We sat down with Stefan Ilic, a new visiting scientific specialist on the GIS team at the Illinois State Geological Survey. In this interview, Stefan shares insights into his journey to becoming a GIS specialist, his passion for geography and cartography, and the tools he relies on for his work.

     

  • Sophia Sagrestano

    Sophia Sagrestano, ISWS graduate student researcher

    Sophia Sagrestano's path toward a master's degree in atmospheric science started with watching the local meteorologist each morning before school in her childhood home. Now she's working with Water Survey researchers to better understand the planetary boundary layer and how it impacts lake effect snow formation over Lake Ontario!

  • Sohan Singh

    Sohan Singh, postdoctoral researcher

  • Shruti Deekshitula

    Shruti Deekshitula, graduate student researcher

    Shruti Deekshitula is a graduate student researcher at the Illinois State Water Survey and an information science student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

  • drilling team on site using a drilling rig.

    Shop and drilling team

  • Shari Effert-Fanta

    Shari Effert-Fanta, assistant director for facilities and safety

    Shari Effert-Fanta, PRI’s assistant director for facilities & safety, is the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Support Staff Award! Effert-Fanta oversees PRI’s many facilities, both on campus and across the state, as well as the safety of PRI staff and students as they work in the field and in the lab; her work impacts everyone at PRI.

  • Shaley Valentine, assistant research scientist

    Shaley Valentine recently joined Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) as an Assistant Research Scientist at the Illinois River Biological Station! Prior to joining INHS, Shaley completed a PhD at Southern Illinois University. We sat down with Shaley to learn more about them, what they’re passionate about, and hear any advice they have for future scientists.

  • Shah Bilawal Ali, research assistant

    Shah Bilawal Ali is an MS student in the Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a Research Assistant at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS). He is now working on the Mitchell CarbonSAFE project, developing geologic models that could contribute to energy sustainability. Explore Ali’s story below to learn about his passion for sedimentology, his tools of the trade, and his ambitions for the future.

  • A man kneeling over an excavation site, removing dirt with a trowel

    Seth Allgeier, curation specialist

    Seth Allgeier recently joined the Illinois State Archaeological Survey as a curation specialist. At PRI, Seth is leveraging his fieldwork experience to assess, organize, and digitize Illinois Department of Transportation site documents

  • A woman with waders sitting in a stream holding a plastic bottle.

    Savanna Palmer, summer research intern

    Savanna Palmer, a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign majoring in Integrative Biology Honors, recently completed an internship under Mark Davis in the Collaborative Conservation Genetic Lab (CCGL) at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS).

  • Sarmila Katuwal wears a cloth face covering while working in the ISTC lab

    Sarmila Katuwal, Visiting Scientific Specialist-Research Engineer

  • Sara Wilson outdoors near trees.

    Sara Wilson, INHS graduate student

  • Sara P. Villazan Perez-Girones

    Sara Villazan Perez-Girones, visiting scientific specialist

  • Sara Johnson, INHS graduate student

  • Sarah Manderbach, water safety researcher

    Sarah Manderbach is a water safety researcher at the Illinois State Water Survey, where she conducts vital research on private wells. At PRI, Sarah is researching testing for Legionella in private wells in Illinois. 

  • Sarah Gaulke standing in front of water holding a bird.

    Sarah Gaulke, INHS graduate student

  • Sam Heads, INHS

    Sam Heads, PRI Center for Paleontology director and curator

  • Sadia Sabrina

    Sadia Sabrina, ISWS graduate student researcher

  • Ron Sjoken in a lab

    Ron Sjoken, environmental monitoring specialist

  • Rohini Vembar

    Rohini Vembar, INHS graduate student researcher

    INHS graduate student Rohini Vembar grew up surrounded by science, and—even as an elementary school student—knew she wanted to go into some STEM field.

  • A man stands in front of a lake at sunset.

    Rob Mooney, assistant research scientist

    Rob Mooney recently joined INHS as an assistant research scientist. His research interests span a range of aquatic science topics, from invertebrate behavior to ecosystem-scale stressors to fisheries management.

  • Robbie Emmet. standing by a tree.

    Robbie Emmet, postdoctoral research associate

    Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) postdoctoral research associate Robbie Emmet is looking forward to working with INHS researchers and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) staff to answer management-relevant research questions and combine the multiple amazing data sets that IDNR has collected for decades.

  • Riley Balikian in a grassy area

    Riley Balikian, geophysicist and hydrogeologist

  • Mark Ryan and Jim Angel

    Research Scientist’s Career Achievement: James R. Angel

  • Reilly Durham, visiting scientific specialist

    Introducing Reilly Durham, who recently joined the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) at the Prairie Research Institute. Their role focuses on algal-bacterial bioaugmentation, aiming to revolutionize wastewater treatment and biofuel production.

  • A woman standing on a boat facing the camera. She is proudly holding a large gar fish using both of her hands.

    Rachel Prostko, water quality technician

    Meet Rachel Prostko, a water quality technician at the Illinois Natural History Survey. Rachel brings her passion for lab and fieldwork to PRI, where she monitors water quality and studies zooplankton communities in the Mississippi watershed.

  • Payton Ohler, summer research intern

    Payton Ohler recently completed her summer internship working with Sherilyn Williams-Stroud at the Illinois State Geological Survey. As a participant in the Graduate College’s Summer Research Opportunities Program, she focused on the social and technological implications of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects.

  • Paul Marcum with Carex decomposita at Round Pond Swamp in Pope County, Illinois.

    Paul Marcum, botanist

  • Paula Bryant and Paula Porubcan

    Paula Porubcan, coordinator Northern Illinois Field Station, and Paula Bryant, archaeological technician

  • Parikshit Gogoi, visiting research scholar

    Meet Dr. Parikshit Gogoi, a distinguished visiting research scholar currently immersed in a journey at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) under the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship. Since September 25, 2023, Dr. Gogoi has been steering his research towards the catalytic conversion of lignin bio-oils components to aromatics and fuel range hydrocarbons.

  • PRI Executive Director presented Sarah Scattergood with the Outstanding New Support Staff Award.

    Outstanding New Support Staff: Sarah E. Scattergood

  • Outstanding Collaboration: Members of the Mahomet Aquifer Response Team & Natural Gas Working Group

  • A woman with her arms outstretched in front of a mountain.

    Nina Athanasopoulos, undergraduate researcher

    Nina Athanasopoulos is an undergraduate researcher at the Illinois State Geological Survey and a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she’s pursuing a degree in Earth, Society, and Environmental Sustainability. Starting with ISGS in January 2024, Nina spent the summer as a Potter Intern, exploring critical minerals research and geochemical analysis.

  • Nico Galardy

    Nico Galardy, IT technical associate

    Meet the Illinois State Geological Survey's new IT technical associate, Nico Galardy! Nico brings eight years of desktop computer support experience, with five of those being in the educational field.

  • Natalie Kerr leans against a low wall wearing biking gear

    Natalie Kerr, visiting senior scientific specialist, environmental public health

    Natalie Kerr started a full-time position at the Water Survey in January 2022. In her role as a environmental public health specialist, she is part of an expanded focus on the intersection between water resources and public health. She is working on two projects related to private wells—one looking at lead levels and the other investigating Legionella (the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease).  

  • Natalia Maass smiling

    Natalia Maass, endangered species specialist

    Meet Natalia Maass, an endangered species specialist with the Illinois Natural History Survey. While Maass continues to tackle challenging programming languages, she stresses that having an advanced degree isn't a qualifier for being a “real” scientist. People can do meaningful work in science as citizen scientists, too.

  • Morgan Bailey

    Morgan Bailey, associate geochemist