Caren has always had a deep appreciation for lakes, growing up in Michigan where every summer activity revolved around lakes. Two summer field positions in Alaska (Redoubt Lake near Sitka, then the Toolik Lake Field Station) during her B.S. (University of Michigan) further strengthened her love for lakes and convinced her that she could make a career out of studying lakes: she became a limnologist.

Christine Laney is an ecological informaticist interested in making ecological and environmental data more accessible and actionable to diverse audiences. Christine joined NEON in 2015.

Dave's current role at NEON is Senior Research Scientist, specializing in Surface-Atmosphere Exchange (SAE) - Data Science. Dave architects algorithmic implementations for the NEON eddy-covariance data processing pipeline. As part of the eddy-covariance pipeline, Dave helps maintain the suite of R packages collectively known as eddy4R and the Docker images built from the source code. Dave is a co-PI on the NCAR-NEON project and the NEON data liaison for the Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI) NEON data challenge Terrestrial Carbon theme.

Colin Williams has spent the better half of the last decade creating educational resources and training materials for the web. He has achieved this by digitizing fine art skills into web-based experiences that are visually intriguing and informational. Colin’s bag of tricks includes Illustration, motion graphics and animation, design and programming. Colin earned a BFA in Illustration from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in 2002 and also training in Flash/Actionscript from City College of San Francisco in 2007.

Abe grew up in south Louisiana where the surrounding coastal wetlands piqued his interest in aquatic biology.  After moving to the West Coast, he completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Southern Oregon University while working on a variety of research and monitoring projects in the surrounding Klamath/Siskiyou/Cascade bioregion and in Ash Meadows, Nevada. His fascination with the Desert Southwest prompted a move to Arizona in 2006.

Rommel currently leads the NEON Assignable Assets Program and is still involved with the Instrumented Systems group. He is a micrometeorologist whose research included studying ecosystem fluxes across arctic tundra, boreal forest, agricultural, and desert ecosystems using tower- and aircraft-based eddy covariance.

Kate Thibault is the Science Lead for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), managing the Science components of the NEON program, providing budget oversight for and technical guidance to the Science Leadership team, the Program Management Office, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Kate joined the NEON program in 2011 as its vertebrate ecologist responsible for the small mammal and breeding bird sampling and data products for the Observatory.

Since 2015 Mike has led the Terrestrial Instrument Science (TIS) Team at NEON providing technical and management oversight of NEON’s 47 terrestrial field sites and their instrumentation. In addition to leading NEON’s TIS team, he has authored over 40 scientific publications, received nearly $3M in external research funding, and served as Chair Elect of the Soil Science Society of America Division of Forest, Range, and Wildland Soils.

Cory has a diverse background in business and environmental science. He received a M.S. in Watershed Science and Policy (2010) from California State University Monterey Bay, and a B.A. in Economics (1993) from University of Maine. His primary interest include assessing stream health using indicator species and understanding physical parameters of stream evolution including stream restoration.

Stephanie is an aquatic ecologist working in the Aquatic Observation System team. Her work at NEON ranges across the aquatic data products, including aquatic microbial sequencing and cell counts, algae (periphyton and phytoplankton) taxonomy and chemistry, aquatic plant taxonomy and chemistry, macroinvertebrate taxonomy and metabarcoding, zooplankton taxonomy and metabarcoding, lake secchi and depth profile data, and stream rapid habitat morphology data, as well as support for the fish data products.