Staff Directory

photo of Brian Beheler

Brian Beheler,

Farm Manager

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Don Carlson,

Forester

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Dennis Heejoon Choi,

Post Doc Research Associate

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Heather Dawson,

Administrative Assistant

Heather grew up in a small town in Illinois and moved to Lafayette about 8 years ago. Upon graduation from high school, she attended Saint Joseph’s college in Rensselaer. Her background is in a variety of office settings. A few of her favorite things about working in an office is getting to showcase her organizational skills, being creative, and helping professionals deal with day-to-day operations so they can focus on their passions. Heather will be in charge of maintaining the website, providing faculty, staff and students with any administrative work, and other various tasks.

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Image of Aziz

Aziz Ebrahimi,

Post Doc Research Associate

Aziz is a PhD Research Associate at Purdue University, studying whole genome and genes related to cold tolerance in walnut and koa. Aziz’s interest is in landscape genetics, phylogeny and evolution of tree species, and he has utilized genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics tools to address questions in that area of research.

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Clayton Emerson,

Assistant Property Manager

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Image of Lenny Farlee.

Lenny Farlee,

Sustaining Hardwood Extension Specialist

Lenny is an extension forester with the HTIRC. He provides programs and publications in a variety of media directed toward improving the regeneration and sustainable management of high-quality hardwood trees and forests in the Central Hardwood Region.

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Rastiveis Heidar,

Post Doc Research Associate

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image of Liz Jackson

Elizabeth ("Liz") Jackson,

Manager Walnut Council/IFWOA and Engagement Specialist for HTIRC

Liz is the Engagement Specialist for HTIRC, Executive Director of the Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association, and the Executive Director of the National Walnut Council.

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Caleb Kell,

Research Forestry Technician

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Behrokh Nazeri,

Post Doc Research Associate

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Image of Indira Paudel.

Indira Paudel,

Post Doc Research Associate

Dr. Paudel is working on the sensitivity of carbon-hydraulic traits of hardwood forest to drought and warming events.

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Image of Caleb Redick.

Caleb Redick,

Research Associate

Caleb is a Research Associate on staff currently researching forest regeneration on reclaimed mines as well as oak enrichment plantings. Caleb’s interest is in restoration ecology and his past research has addressed deer herbivory, invasive species, and reclamation of oil well pads.

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Bina Thapa,

Post Doc Research Associate

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Andrei Toca,

Post Doc Research Associate

Acclimating commercial tree seedling root system architecture to drought.

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Jianmin Wang,

Post Doc Research Associate

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Image of Jim Warren.

James ("Jim") Warren,

USDA Forest Service, Biological Scientist/Operational Tree Breeder

jcwarren@purdue.edu  Prior to coming to the HTIRC, Jim assisted in running the daily operations of the Minnesota Tree Improvement Cooperative at the University of Minnesota’s Cloquet Forestry Center for 17 years. His primary duties entailed designing, implementing, and measuring field trials, assisting with orchard management, conducting tree breeding and grafting, and collecting data.

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Image of Cameron Wingren.

Cameron Wingren,

Unmanned Aerial Systems Data Collection

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