Lilly Jones
Post-Doctoral Associate
- PhD Geology and Geological Engineering, SD School of Mines and Technology, 2021
- BS Earth and Environmental Sciences, Oglala Lakota College, 2013
Research Interests
I am an environmental data scientist and educator working at the intersection of Earth systems science, geospatial analysis, environmental modeling, and community-centered data stewardship. My work focuses on building computational tools and workflows that support environmental resilience, hydrogeologic understanding, and accessible data science education.
My research interests include wildfire and watershed dynamics, hydrogeology, geospatial systems, environmental risk analysis, and the integration of reproducible computational methods into applied environmental decision-making. I am particularly interested in how complex environmental systems can be made more interpretable through visualization, simulation, and interactive modeling approaches.
Current Research
Much of my work emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and community-engaged research, including projects related to Tribal environmental data sovereignty, Earth data science infrastructure, and educational access to computational tools. I believe strongly that environmental data science should not only produce rigorous analyses, but also support transparency, accessibility, and local decision-making capacity.
In addition to my environmental research, I maintain a strong interest in systems thinking, simulation, games, and puzzle-based learning. Many of the same concepts that govern environmental systems also appear in games and computational simulations. I enjoy exploring these overlaps through open-source projects, educational tools, and experimental modeling workflows.
My teaching philosophy emphasizes curiosity, exploration, and reproducibility. I aim to create learning environments where students can engage directly with real-world datasets, computational thinking, and systems-based approaches to environmental challenges.
Research Categories
Biology and Ecosystems, Energy, Science Policy, Water ResourcesHonors and Awards
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About CECA
CECA connects and creates a supportive environment for graduate students and postdocs who come from various academic units to do research in CIRES.