Zhibin Sun

Dr. Zhibin Sun’s research interests include data assimilation theory and application, nonlinear dynamical systems and numerical computation.

Michael Coughenour

Dr. Michael Coughenour’s research interests include ungulate-dominated grazing and browsing ecosystems, livestock-wildlife interactions, terrestrial ecosystem responses to atmospheric changes, African savannas, tree-grass interactions, human and pastoral ecology, atmosphere-biosphere interactions, and plant responses to herbivory, and ecological modeling. He currently works part time with the UVMRP, and is a ColoradoView Principal Scientist, researching the agricultural impact of UV radiation and agricultural and economic modeling.

Rita Deike

Rita is the Office Manager and has been with the UVMRP since 2004 and with Colorado State University since 1986. Rita works closely with the director, staff and CSU offices to discuss and review all program and university processes. Rita assists with USDA NIFA and University reporting protocols. She assists with the management of UV-B site contracts, subcontracts, service agreements, equipment purchases, travel for field technicians and staff, and the management and responsibilities of an off-campus administrative unit. Her areas of interest include budgets, grant writing, networking and photography.

Bill Durham

Bill was the first employee of the UV-B Program and assists in the maintenance of the solar UV-B radiation monitoring network. Bill works with staff to check daily UV-B site data downloads 24/7, troubleshoots site instrument issues, and travels to sites for maintenance and repair.

George Janson

George is the operations manager of the 40-station UV-B Climatological Monitoring Network, which includes the design, development, and administration of this component of the USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program, and travels to sites for maintenance and repair.

Scott Simpson

Scott is an experienced engineering technician who repairs and rebuilds the network instruments, and assists in the operational oversight and maintenance of the solar UV radiation monitoring network deployed at 40 sites throughout the US, southern Canada and New Zealand, and travels to sites for maintenance and repair.

Jonathan Straube

Jonathan has been a Research Associate with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory since 1997 and has been the IT manager for UVMRP since 2013. He is responsible for the desktop support, the network infrastructure and IT budgeting and procurement. Jonathan has also studied ecosystem modeling, adding a photosynthetic sub-model to the DAYCENT biogeochemical model as part of his master’s thesis requirements. His next large project will be archiving the UV-B radiation data into CSU digital data repository.