Lab Members

Assistant Professor Benjamin Goldstein

Benjamin is an Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University. He completed his graduate and post-graduate studies at the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Michigan. He develops models to understand the multi-scalar environmental impacts of cities and to explore issues of environmental justice. Research domains include food systems, energy use, and corporate sustainability.

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Jinchao Song

Jinchao's research focuses on satellite remote sensing and GIS applications in urban environments and resource management. She works on high spatial resolution mapping based on geospatial big data, including functional zones, 3D urban forms, landscape patterns, and building material stocks. Using high-resolution datasets, she investigates traffic congestion, pollutant emissions, and the urban heat island effect, as well as their impacts on public health. 

Currently, her research investigates the influence of urban density, land use patterns, and transportation infrastructure on transportation carbon emissions in U.S. cities. By leveraging high-resolution spatial data, she examines the relationship between urban form and emission levels, aiming to identify sustainable urban planning strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of cities. 

Her scientific interests include integrating remote sensing and GIS for sustainable urban planning, advancing methods for high-resolution spatial data analysis, and exploring the interactions between urban form, resource management, and environmental health. She is particularly focused on understanding how urban design and infrastructure can be optimized to reduce environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions and heat island effects, while promoting overall urban sustainability.

Elnaz Amirahmadi

Elnaz is a postdoctoral researcher focused on carbon accounting of forest products. Her research interests include life cycle assessment (LCA), forest ecology, and soil amendments, particularly biochar. She has a strong background in carbon footprinting, carbon sequestration, and plant-soil interactions, with an emphasis on how ecosystem management practices can help minimize environmental impact.

Elnaz began her academic journey in Iran, specializing in forest ecology, and later expanded her expertise in LCA through research in Europe. She earned her PhDs in topics closely aligned with her passion for environmental sustainability and has contributed to multiple international research projects. Her experience spans data analysis, laboratory measurements, and field and greenhouse experiments.
Beyond her research, Elnaz has participated in various international internships and scientific collaborations, further broadening her perspective on environmental assessment. She is also experienced in meta-analysis techniques and proficient in LCA software, including openLCA and SimaPro, which she applies to assess environmental impacts in her work.

PhD Student - Ali Taghdisian

Ali received his B.S. in Civil Engineering, and his M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. After graduating, he tested designed novel waste technologies to re-use of saline waste to tackle water scarcity and food security in his home country of Iran . Since then, he has shifted away from conventional engineering solutions towards system analysis of the  underlying social and political drivers of environmental change. He likes to link quantitative and qualitative concepts, and move beyond pure technological silo-based answers to sustainability problems of socio-natures.

He has experiences as an engineer, researcher, and lately as geospatial data scientist. His current focus is on how human society, specifically urban areas, interact with their environment and metabolize socio-ecological flows and co-evolve. Sustainability of urban food system and supply chain are areas that he is currently researching on through urban metabolism lens.

PhD Student - Charlotte Sedlock

Charlotte, a social scientist with expertise in corporate sustainability and supply chains, is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. Co-advised by Dr. Joshua Newell and Dr. Benjamin Goldstein, she researches how market-based governance can unintentionally perpetuate social inequities in agro-food value chains, focusing on smallholder farmers’ market participation and exclusion.

Her sustainability journey began at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she double-majored in Environmental Studies and Communication. 

At Apeel Sciences, Charlotte spent seven years establishing the Sustainability Team, ESG Strategy, and Supplier Responsibility Program. She also held leadership roles in the Produce Marketing Association's Sustainability Committee and the International Fresh Produce Association's Sustainability Council.

In her free time, Charlotte enjoys paddle boarding, volunteering with the Food Bank, exploring bookshelves, and tiring out her dog, Olive.

Yifanzi Zhu

Yifanzi is a dual-degree master’s student in Landscape Architecture and Geospatial Data Science at the University of Michigan. Her research currently focuses on hydrological modeling and E. coli surface water monitoring, using SPARROW, statistical, and machine learning methods to analyze pollution sources and transport. She also studies green space accessibility, urban environmental challenges, and resort development with remote sensing and GIS. With a B.S. in Environmental Design, her past work includes urban stormwater microclimates and indoor air quality. She integrates environmental modeling, human-centered analysis, and ecological design to improve built environments.