Science Team Biographies

Lead Scientist

Lynne A. Trulio, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University, where she has taught and conducted research since 1991. Dr. Trulio teaches courses in environmental impact assessment and environmental restoration, as well as graduate seminars and undergraduate courses. Her research investigates human impacts on species and habitats and seeks effective methods to mitigate or eliminate those impacts. Specific research has included studies of tidal salt marsh restoration in the San Francisco Bay, the effects of trail use on shorebirds and waterfowl, and the ecology and recovery of the western burrowing owl in California. From August 1999 to December 2000, as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Environmental and Engineering Fellow, she was an environmental scientist in the Wetlands Division, Office of Wetlands, Oceans & Watersheds of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. Her work focused on scientific and policy issues related to wetland monitoring, wetland restoration, and wetland wildlife issues. She holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis (1988) and an undergraduate degree in biology from Goucher College in Towson, MD (1979).

Team Members

John Callaway, Ph.D. is an expert in wetland restoration and ecology and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science Department at the University of San Francisco. Previously he served as Associate Director of the Pacific Estuarine Research Laboratory (PERL) which specializes in coastal wetland restoration in southern California. He has a Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University with an emphasis in wetland ecology. Dr. Callaway's recent research projects include evaluating the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem function in restored coastal wetlands, assessing impacts of sedimentation on coastal wetlands, and evaluating the importance of tidal creek networks for the development of restored wetlands.

Josh Collins received his Ph.D. in Entomological Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley and conducted post-doctoral studies in Geography and Ecology at the University of California at Berkeley and Davis. Dr. Collins is a landscape ecologist and regional ecological planner with special expertise in wetland evolution, geomorphology, and plant-animal interactions. He has been a professional ecologist in regulated industry for impact studies of power generation in western coastal, estuarine, and river systems. He has been a consulting ecologist in private practice for the design of stream and wetland restoration projects. Since joining SFEI in 1993, Dr. Collins has been the lead scientist for the Bay Area Regional Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project, the Bay Area Wetlands Regional Monitoring Plan, the Bay Area Watershed Science Approach, and the Bay Area EcoAtlas Information System. His current research focuses on rapid assessment and intensive functional assessment of wetland and streams, spatial distribution of bio-geochemical processes in coastal wetlands, and scale-dependent habitat fragmentation profiles for wetland and riparian landscapes. Dr. Collins currently serves as a science advisor to the USEPA’s Global Change Program on Ecosystem Services to San Francisco Bay, coordinates peer review for the Montezuma Wetlands and Bolinas Lagoon Restoration Projects, and advices graduate studies in Traditional Ecological Knowledge and fluvial-tidal landscape interactions. Dr. Collins directs the Wetland Science program at SFEI.

Edward S. Gross, Ph.D. is an environmental consultant specialized in numerical modeling of environmental flows. He has been involved in studies of San Francisco Bay hydrodynamics and water quality for 13 years. During this period, he has developed state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models and validated them using detailed hydrodynamic and water quality data. Recently, he performed threedimensional hydrodynamic modeling of proposed runway alternatives in an environmental impact study for SFO and has performed hydrodynamic, salinity and water quality modeling of Tomales Bay. He is currently conducting detailed hydrodynamic and salinity modeling related to large-scale restoration of salt ponds in San Francisco Bay. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University (1997) and an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (1990).

Bruce Herbold, Ph.D has been working with fishes of the San Fancisco Estuary since 1979. Since 1991 he has worked at USEPA in managing water supply operations and water quality to improve protection of fish resources. Major work efforts have been the development of water quality standards to protect estuarine habitat, adaptive managment programs to protect and understand San Joaquin salmon and intensive field studies at the Delta Cross Channel to better understand the interactions between water movement and adult and juvenile salmon migrations. He has published community profiles of the delta, status and trend reports for the bay, and scientific papers on splittail, delta smelt, and fish community dynamics. He received his BA from UC Berkeley, a MS from California State University Los Angeles and his Ph.D from UC Davis.

Michael Josselyn has a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire and taught wetland ecology, delineation, and restoration courses for over 20 years at San Francisco State University. He is now a Professor Emeritus. In 1982, he formed and developed Wetlands Research Associates, Inc. for the purpose of utilizing the best scientific information to improve wetland management and regulation in the United States. Dr. Josselyn has served as the project manager for wetland mitigation and restoration projects including several projects exceeding 1000 acres. He has been the wetland design team leader coastal wetland restoration at the 400 ac Batiquitos Lagoon for the Port of Los Angeles, the 1000 ac Bolsa Chica wetland for the California Coastal Conservancy, the 400 ac San Dieguito River Wetland Restoration for Southern California Edison, and the 3000 ac Commercial Hay Farm wetland restoration for Public Service Gas and Electric on Delaware Bay. He has been the project leader for restoration in freshwater wetlands, including the 400 acre vernal pool wetland restoration at Pacific Commons in Fremont, CA. Dr. Josselyn has won environmental awards for projects in the City of San Francisco, City of Newark, Orange County, Monterey County, and for the 100 acre Goose Creek wetland, the largest forested wetland restoration in northern Virginia. He was selected as Conservator of the Year by the Bolsa Chica Conservancy in 2000. As a certified Professional Wetland Scientist, Dr. Josselyn is currently Vice-President of Society of Wetland Scientists Professional Certification Program. He has served as an advisor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Ocean Program, a member of numerous panels for the National Research Council, and a consultant to the Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Panel. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project and the Technical Advisory Committee for the City of San Francisco’s Master Water Quality Plan. He is an elected member of the California Academy of Sciences. He is a certified trainer for the Corps wetland delineation methodology and has regularly provided training in routine and advanced wetland delineation throughout California.

Frederic H. Nichols, Ph.D. is a retiree from his position as a U.S. Geological Survey Research Oceanographer. Upon completion of the Ph.D. degree in Oceanography in 1972 from the University of Washington, Dr. Nichols joined the USGS as part of an interdisciplinary research team studying San Francisco Bay. Dr. Nichols’ role in the study was to describe the ecology of the benthic invertebrate community of San Francisco Bay and to distinguish, where possible, between the effects of natural variations (e.g., effects of climate) and human activities (e.g., effects of water management or waste disposal). More recently he examined the ecological effects of introduced exotic invertebrates on the bay’s foodweb. He is the author or co-author of more than 50 published reports, mostly on San Francisco Bay. Dr. Nichols served in various USGS leadership positions including a seven-year tenure as Western Region Chief of the Water Resources Division National Research Program, and on a number of state and federal science advisory committees including the National Research Council Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Case Study Panel (1987-89) and the EPA National Estuary Program San Francisco Estuary Project Technical Advisory Committee (1987-93). He served as President of both the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 1989-90), and Estuarine Research Federation (ERF, 1995-97). More recently, Dr. Nichols served in several advisory capacities for CALFED, including the Steering Committee of the Comprehensive Monitoring, Assessment, and Research Program (CMARP), the Environmental Restoration Program Integration Panel, the Agency and Stakeholder Science Team (ASET), and as Co-Chair of the 2000 and 2003 CALFED Science Conferences. He also served on the San Francisco Airport Science Panel, convened by NOAA and BCDC to review the scientific studies carried out by the airport consultants prior to the issuance of the EIS and EIR reports regarding the proposed expansion of airport runways into the bay (2000-2003). He continues to serve as Chairman of the Committee of Science Advisors, and member of the Governing Board of SFEI (1994-present); as a member of The Bay Institute Bay-Delta-Rivers Ecological Scorecard Panel (2002-3); the Coastal Conservancy Tidal Wetlands Restoration Handbook Peer Review Group (2002-3); and as Co-Editor of the new on-line journal, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science.

David Schoellhamer, Ph.D. has been conducting sediment transport research in San Francisco Bay for the U.S. Geological Survey since 1993 in cooperation with the CALFED Bay/Delta Program, San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Regional Monitoring Program for Trace Substances, California Coastal Conservancy, UC Davis, and the Interagency Ecological Program. Many publications and technical presentations have resulted from this work (http://water.wr.usgs.gov/abstract/sfbay/sfbaycontbib.html). He has been a co-PI on several projects studying the Napa and South Bay salt ponds and he chaired the Modeling Technical Advisory Group for the Napa Marsh restoration. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. From 1987 to 1993 he conducted a study of sediment resuspension in Tampa Bay, Florida, for the USGS. Dr. Schoellhamer earned his doctorate in Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering from the University of Florida in 1993 and Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from UC Davis in 1982 and 1983.

Cheryl M. Strong has been a research biologist and waterbird program director for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory since 2002. Her research focuses on endangered species, contaminants and reproductive success, and the ecology of waterbirds in the San Francisco Bay area. Cheryl’s previous research has included the wintering ecology of landbirds and the effects of forest fragmentation on Amazonian birds. She received her M.S. in biology from Southeastern Louisiana University and B.A. in ecology from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lois M. Takahashi is Associate Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Urban Planning at the UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California, an M.S. in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and an A.B. in Architecture from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include access to social services for populations in need (e.g., homeless individuals and persons living with HIV/AIDS), the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome, and community participation and environmental governance in Southeast Asian cities (especially Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). Dr. Takahashi’s book on the NIMBY syndrome was published in 1998 (Oxford University Press). Her most recent book (2002, with Amrita Daniere) assesses the roles of community participation, state intervention, and nongovernmental organizations in managing urban development and environmental degradation in Bangkok, Thailand (Ashgate Publishing). In addition to her work on the SF Bay salt pond restoration planning process, she is currently involved in research in Southern California that examines (1) the role of social capital in access to social services for Filipino Americans, and (2) the role of municipal designation and the built environment in generating social capital and economic development in Asian Pacific Islander American communities. She can be reached at takahash@spa.ucla.edu.

John Takekawa, Ph.D. has been a federal research wildlife biologist in California for 17 years. He is a principal investigator for the U. S. Geological Survey at the San Francisco Bay Estuary Field Station, Western Ecological Research Center in Vallejo. He received his B.S. in Wildlife Science from the University of Washington, his M.S. in Wildlife Resources from the University of Idaho, and his Ph.D. in Animal Ecology from Iowa State University. His research focuses on the wintering and migratory ecology of waterbirds through radio and satellite telemetry, and ecological processes in the San Francisco Bay ecosystem. He is one of the lead scientists in the USGS program providing science support for salt pond restoration.

Dilip Trivedi, Dr. Eng., P.E. is a Senior Coastal and Civil Engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, where he has been practicing since 1992. Dr. Trivedi brings his experience on a variety of issues related to coastal engineering and wetlands restoration, including tidal and estuarine hydraulics, hydrologic evaluation, shoreline morphology, wave climatology, sediment transport, water quality, dredging, and shoreline protection. His experience includes preparation of bid documents, numerical modeling, design analysis, field data collection, and construction support. He has managed the design and analyses tasks for several estuarine and marsh restoration projects in Northern California, and San Francisco Bay in particular, which have required detailed analysis of fluvial systems, wind driven waves, Bay-wide hydrodynamics and water quality, and Bay-wide sediment transport processes. Dr. Trivedi’s recent projects include restoration studies for several North Bay diked baylands and South Bay salt ponds under contract to the San Francisco International Airport, flood management studies for the South Bay Salt Pond restoration project, estuarine restoration in Humboldt and San Mateo Counties, and urban waterfront access around SF Bay. He is currently assisting the San Pablo Bay Wildlife Refuge with the restoration of Cullinan Ranch. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University where he obtained a Doctor of Engineering degree, and a Master of Engineering (Ocean) degree.

Nils Warnock, Ph.D. co-directs the Wetland Ecology Division of PRBO Conservation Science. He has a joint Ph.D. in ecology from San Diego State University and UC Davis focusing on the winter ecology of a common San Francisco Bay shorebird, the Dunlin. His current research focuses on the ecology and conservation of Pacific Flyway birds with an emphasis on endangered species, wetland birds, habitat restoration, shorebird conservation, and bird migration. Part of his current research focuses on the question of how habitat restoration and alterations affect bird populations, particularly in San Francisco Bay, but also in other areas such as at the Salton Sea. Nils has been involved in studying bird use of San Francisco Bay since the mid 1980s, but as a representative of PRBO Conservation Science, he and his colleagues including Gary Page, Nadav Nur, and others, have been promoting the better understanding and conservation of bird populations that use the San Francisco Bay estuary since the 1970s.

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