People

Lian Pin Koh (Principal Investigator)

Lian Pin is Assistant Professor of Applied Ecology & Conservation at the ETH Zurich, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is a tropical ecologist by training. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University (2008), where he studied the environmental and policy implications of oil-palm development in Southeast Asia. He then spent three years at the ETH Zurich. During that time, his research focused on key scientific and policy issues concerning tropical deforestation and its impacts on carbon emissions and biodiversity. Download CV Link to Koh Lab Website

Sinan Abood

Sinan is a remote sensing expert who joined the group in October 2011. Sinan is working as a research associate to develop geospatial models utilizing cutting-edge remote sensing and GIS techniques to detect oil palm trees, agriculture activities and their impact on tropical biodiversity.

Janice S.H. Lee

Janice is a Ph.D. student under the co-supervision of Profs. Lian Pin Koh and Jaboury Ghazoul. In her research, she investigates the contribution of the oil-palm industry towards rural livelihoods, the potential for capitalizing on such opportunities by smallholder farmers, and their vulnerabilities in doing so. She also seeks to identify where oil-palm development should be promoted to alleviate impacts on natural forests, and to maximize benefits to rural communities. Her research is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

John Garcia-Ulloa

John is also a Ph.D. student under the co-supervision of Profs. Lian Pin Koh and Jaboury Ghazoul. The main objective of his project is to evaluate the environmental and socioeconomic tradeoffs and multiple-benefits of REDD+ implementation in relation to agricultural production, forest protection, biodiversity conservation and economic development. His research is funded by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Centre and Mercator Foundation.

Zuzana Burivalova

Zuzana is a PhD student in the Applied Ecology and Conservation Group, supervised by Prof. Lian Pin Koh. Her PhD research focuses on the ecological implications of the illegal logging crisis in Madagascar's north-eastern tropical humid forests.

Ankara Marjatshang Chen

Ankara is the secretary of the group (shared with Prof. Jaboury Ghazoul). More...