Jenna Abrahamson received her PhD in Geospatial Analytics from North Carolina State University in 2025 under the guidance of Dr. Josh Gray. Formally trained as a remote sensing scientist, her dissertation focused on using machine learning, spatiotemporal statistics, and data fusion to characterize flooding and its impact on upscaled methane emissions estimates in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain wetlands. During her PhD, Jenna received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and was awarded a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (NASA FINESST) research grant.

At PNNL, Jenna is a member of the Terrestrial and Aquatic Integration team in the Biological Sciences Division, working with James Stegen. Her Linus Pauling Fellowship research focuses on advancing scalable hybrid modeling approaches that integrate geospatial artificial intelligence, remote sensing, and physics-based models to better map fine-scale, short-term inundation dynamics and evaluate their influence on methane emissions across diverse watersheds.

Rijul Chauhan earned his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2025 under the guidance of Dr. Lin Shao, following dual bachelor's degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Physics from Idaho State University in 2018. His doctoral research focused on developing high-throughput irradiation testing techniques to accelerate the qualification of nuclear materials for advanced reactor applications.

At PNNL, Rijul is a member of the Reactor Materials Group in the Nuclear Sciences Division, working with Eda Aydogan and Stuart Maloy. His Linus Pauling Fellowship research centers on evaluating the irradiation resistance of functionally graded transition joints as a robust alternative to conventional dissimilar metal welds. By leveraging additive manufacturing, his work aims to enable smoother material transitions and mitigate failure risks in extreme environments. His broader research goals support the safe, efficient, and sustainable deployment of advanced nuclear energy technologies.

Yang Shi received her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from Texas A&M University and worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral associate. She holds a BS from Nanjing University in China. Her research focuses on natural atmospheric aerosols – including dust, fire, biogenic secondary organic aerosols – and their responses to anthropogenic activities. 

At PNNL, Yang is a member of the Global Atmospheric Modeling group in the Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Science Division. She will work with Po-Lun Ma to investigate the influence of atmospheric iron deposition on oceanic sulfur emissions using Earth System Models. 

Xinchang “Cathy” Li received her PhD in Civil Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) under the guidance of Prof. Lei Zhao. Her dissertation focused on the mechanisms, effects, and modeling of the interactions between the urban environment and energy use across global to local scales. She combines theory, Earth system modeling, and artificial intelligence/machine learning methods to inform stakeholders on developing sustainable urban energy pathways. She is the recipient of the Engelbrecht Fellowship at UIUC and the Andrew Slater Award from NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

At PNNL, Cathy is a member of the Regional and Cloud Modeling Group in the Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Science Division, working with Casey Burleyson, TC Chakraborty, and Yun Qian. Her current work aims to elucidate the interacting effects of urban building electrification and city-integrated solar energy on urban heat and cold extremes.

Payton Beeler received her PhD in Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering with Rajan Chakrabarty at Washington University in St. Louis. Her PhD work focused on using epidemic modeling to establish associations between long-term air pollution exposure and the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, and developing improved optical models for black carbon aerosols.

Payton is currently a member of the Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division under the mentorship of Laura Fierce. Her primary research is focused on developing particle-resolved models to improve the representation of smoke aerosols in Earth system models.

Krista Kulesa earned her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington, under the mentorship of Prof. Jeremy Smith and Prof. Lane Baker. Her thesis work focused on electrosynthesis and electrocatalytic remediation of nitrogen cycle intermediates, nitrogen oxide pollutants, and greenhouse gases. During her thesis, Krista received a DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program award to conduct high-pressure electrochemistry at PNNL.

At PNNL, Krista is a member of the Catalysis Science group in the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate under the guidance of Tom Autrey and Eric Wiedner. Her current research focuses on the development of atomically precise electrocatalyst materials for the reversible energy storage in organic hydrogen carriers. As part of this work, she plans to develop a high-throughput electrochemistry platform to accelerate the discovery of structure-function relationships and optimize bidirectional energy storage and retrieval.