Nicole BornkampPrinceton University

Class of 2014PEI Development Challenger

Impact of Climate ChangeOn Biodiversity and Crops

In South Africa

Woodrow Wilson School STEP Program

GOALS:

To develop a deeper understanding of:

1. The nature of scientific, technological, and environmental problems and opportunities

2. The specialized methods used for analyzing scientific, technological, and environmental issues

3. The impact of science, engineering, and environmental analysis on national and international policy.

General Internship Goals

Assist post-doc in collecting, organizing, and checking research data

Develop and improve on several computer codes related to the data

Highlight areas of South Africa (ex: commercial forestry) that cannot be used to grow crops

Create visual images of collected data

Methods

RStudio/MODIS

ArcGIS/Pixels

Google Earth/ArcGIS

Results

Stitched images

Pixel changes

Accurate wheat points

Commercial forestry outlines

Reflections

Learned new computer programs—basic problem solving to more advance code writing

Involved in program of great interest to my future work at Princeton and beyond

Worked in a dedicated, intelligent, and extremely professional environment

Interacted with all different levels of management and research here at Princeton

THANK YOU!

Lyndon Estes, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Woodrow Wilson School and the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy

Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs

David Wilcove, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs

Grand Challenges Internship Program