Beyond Boundaries: Diego's Adventure in the NASA FINESST Program
The NASA Early Career Research Program (ECR) offers multiple programs for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, along with those that are early in their career and educators. Although they offer multiple programs, all programs share a common mission, to “empower the next generation of Earth Science researchers to create a diverse and inclusive workforce that enables solutions to benefit society, respond to changes in Earth’s system, and to support the Earth Science to Action.” The Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN) and NASA collaborate closely to bring young professionals opportunities to develop as professionals through mentorship, webinars, collaboration at conferences, and learning opportunities around geographic sciences.
Esri YPN is excited to highlight the work of some of the outstanding candidates in the NASA ECR. In this article, you will hear from Diego Ellis Soto, a Ph. D candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and his work using geospatial technology as a Future Investigator in NASA ECR’s Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST).
Diego Ellis Soto enjoys spending time in nature and doing anything outdoors.
"I want to encourage folks to apply regarding on how they may feel about their quantitative skillset." – Diego Ellis Soto, Ph.D candidate and NASA FINESST Future Investigator
Why did you decide to apply for the NASA FINESST program? What helped you to determine this program was for you?
The first time I thought this program was for me during the first NASA Ecological Forecasting Team meeting I participated in. I was just beginning my PhD and got to present a poster of ongoing work. I got great feedback, but also saw the cutting-edge research at the interface of biology, technology, and geography. I had ‘found ’my community of peers. In addition, I got to see FINESST fellows give amazing talks. I was inspired by their work and dared to try to become one myself.
I decided to apply to NASA’s FINESST program because it seemed like a unique combination of the technical skills I was working towards in the middle of my PhD. Specifically, this includes linking environmental and meteorological conditions derived from satellites with the movement and day to day activities of wildlife. These included handling large geospatial information derived from remote sensing and coupling it to information of our planet Earth including the biosphere across large geographic areas.
NASA FINESST offers substantial financial support for PhD students and support for traveling and publication fees coupled with a support system for NASA Early Career Scientists.
What project(s) did you work on?
During my FINESST project I worked extensively on quantifying how wildlife must share an increasingly crowded planet with us. In practice this meant analyzing large amount of wildlife GPS locations collected by tracking devices equipped on animals and linking these to environmental and anthropogenic conditions at their respective locations.
Diego does research in the field.
Primarily, I investigated how terrestrial birds and mammals responded to sudden changes in human mobility across the United States during the 2020 lockdowns resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. By understanding how wildlife was able to adapt to strong changes in the day to day behavior of humans we can hopefully inform adaptive management practices to promote a more sustainable living and enhance conservation practices.
Another project I worked on during my time as a FINESST fellow included assessing the potential of animals as meteorologists! For instance, this included analyzing temperature measurements recorded from telemetry devices collected by wild animals and comparing these to satellite and weather station measurements. Animals could be seen as agile earth observers across land, air, and sea.
Read more about Diego’s findings here!
What did you learn from this program? How do you see yourself using this in the future?
I learned so much! Primarily I gained a much better understanding on the role of space agencies and other federal agencies in supporting research on our most important planet across the Galaxies, planet Earth.
Meeting additional FINESST fellows and researchers currently being supported by NASA gave me a much better understanding on the wide role that satellite products and new sensor technologies play in supporting ambitious cutting edge research products, help inform managers adaptively, and allow us to explore nature and the hidden lives of animals in new ways.
I see myself continuing my work with satellite data, remote sensing analysis, human activity products and large geospatial cloud computing in the future in support of biodiversity science research and conservation of species and ecosystems.
What advice would you like to give to students and young professionals?
Reflecting on my experience with NASA FINESST, I've gained invaluable insights and skills that I believe will shape my trajectory both academically and professionally.
In terms of writing such a proposal, start early! Preparing a FINESST proposal is a fair amount of work. For PhD students in their first or second year, writing such a proposal is a great starting point for a dissertation template or for qualifying exams. I also recommend reaching out to previous FINESST Future Investigators to ask for their input and to read past successful applications. Understanding how your research project can help advance NASA’s goal is also of critical importance for this proposal.
Finally, I want to encourage folks to apply regarding on how they may feel about their quantitative skillset. You can always learn more down the role and FINESST can be a great avenue to hone your spatial data science or statistic skills.
If you want to keep up with the work that Diego is doing, check out his website – https://diegoellissoto.org/. We loved getting to see more about his research and checking out his Music & Art!
Diego's work, and his continuous learning and professional development are inspiring. If you want to learn more about the NASA Early Career Research Program, check out their website, and keep an eye out for upcoming Esri YPN and NASA ECR collaborations!