I work with a number of wonderful undergraduate students at Boston College on a variety of social-ecological systems research projects. Students at BC generally work with me through the Undergraduate Research Fellowship program or via a Senior Thesis.
Research students
Lily Arouth
My name is Lily Arouth and I’m an undergraduate student at Boston College studying Biology. I am from Salem, MA and am ecstatic to be working under Dr. Kurz on a study on coyote ecology and diet. As opportunistic omnivores that have adapted to urban areas, their food sources and dispersal have shifted. Our goal is to determine what their current movement and dietary patterns are in an effort to inform conservation practices and minimize human-wildlife conflicts. Lucy Bailey
I am a senior at Trinity College in Hartford, CT with a double major in Environmental Science and Francophone Studies, minoring in Formal Organizations.
Over my four years at Trinity, I have assisted Professor Dave Kurz with his research project on the Hartford Park System. The project asks questions such as what barriers there are to park access, how the COVID-19 pandemic affected park usage, and what benefits urban parks provide to users in relation to their mental health. The study explores themes of environmental justice, urban green space planning, mental health, COVID-19, and questions of park accessibility. I have been involved from the survey stage to now leading the literature review, data analytics, and generating figures. Simone Brennan
My name is Simone Brennan, and I'm currently a Sophomore Environmental Studies student with a concentration in Climate Change and Societal Adaptation. I am from New York City and am especially interested in social thought and responses to climate change. I am working with Dr. Kurz on research aiming to understand Jesuit thought on climate change as it relates to their role in the Church through interviews and analysis. I have additional research experience in the Gulf of Maine, studying the impacts of invasive species on intertidal ecosystems and their relevance to local fishing economies.Annabel Caseria
My name is Annabel Caseria and I am an undergrad at Boston College studying Environmental Studies and Asian Studies. I am passionate about wildlife ecology and sustainable agriculture, and have spent time working with organic farming practices in my hometown, Sudbury, MA. This summer I am excited to conduct field work with Dr. Kurz to investigate coyote habitat use and diet composition in the Boston area. Our goal is to identify opportunities for human-coyote coexistence. Mae Carroll
My name is Mae Carroll, and I am an undergraduate student at Boston College studying Environmental Studies with a concentration in Communications and a minor in Marketing. I am from Portland, Maine and currently working with Dr. Kurz on my senior thesis, which examines the impacts of climate change on Maine’s lobster industry. My research focuses on the cultural connections lobstermen have to the industry, as well as their firsthand observations of environmental changes through their work. Growing up in Maine and spending over two years working in the lobster industry have deeply shaped my interest in this topic and inspired me to explore it further through my research. TJ Foster
My name is TJ Foster and I’m currently a Junior majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies at Boston College. I grew up in Luxembourg and some of my hobbies include playing rugby, birdwatching, and wildlife photography. My first project in the lab was synthesis and review of hunting knowledge transfer literature. I’m now working on mapping and understanding Coyote-Human interactions in the Boston area and I’m hoping to get some photos and videos along the way.Ana Lago
I am currently a research assistant collaborating with my peers in the Environment and Society Lab, which analyzes social and ecological factors. I am an Environmental Studies student with a concentration in Climate Mitigation and Social Adaptation. I have extensive experience researching sea turtle behavior and the influence of climate change on their nesting patterns. I worked as a conservation assistant in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, collecting data on nesting Olive Ridleys with other students from around the world.Joshua Lin
My name is Joshua Lin and I'm a rising junior at Boston College majoring in Finance and Environmental Studies. I grew up in Hong Kong, and outside of academics I spend most of my time playing basketball, cooking, and watching the Premier League and NFL — Aston Villa and the San Francisco 49ers, for better or worse. I've always been drawn to nature, even growing up in a city as dense as Hong Kong, where green spaces feel rare and precious. This summer I'm working on individual coat pattern identification for snow leopards to help build a dataset for population density estimates in Pakistan. What excites me about this project is exactly the intersection it sits at, using data and pattern recognition to answer real ecological questions. Coming from a finance and analytics background where I spend a lot of time working with datasets and quantitative models, I find it genuinely fascinating to apply that same kind of structured thinking to wildlife conservation. I'm hoping this experience deepens both my appreciation for fieldwork-driven science and my understanding of how data can serve the natural world.Mia McCrann
Hi! I’m an undergraduate student at Boston College majoring in Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Environmental Justice and Policy, and a minor in Music. I’m from Great Falls, Virginia, and I currently work as an undergraduate research fellow with Dr. Kurz, studying snow leopard coat identification and species diversity. I remotely analyze camera trap images collected from the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. Our goal is to improve individual identification methods and better understand population diversity, ultimately supporting conservation efforts for the species. When I’m not doing research, you can find me spending time outdoors or playing my violin or guitar :)Kate Stricker
I am currently an undergraduate at Boston College, double-majoring in Biology and Environmental Geoscience. I am originally from Bethesda, Maryland, and grew up spending most of my time hiking, exploring outdoors, and collecting insects, rocks, and minerals. My academic interests focus on ecology, particularly the impacts of anthropogenic activities on various ecosystems and the environment. I am currently involved in research analyzing camera trap footage to identify individual snow leopards through visual coat pattern recognition. This exciting and rewarding work contributes to understanding snow leopard population patterns, behavior, and home ranges in Pakistan.