Research Officers Committee

Dr. William Hunnicutt is the Associate Director of the Carleton Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. He completed a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Will oversees research and teaching operations within the Carleton Lab, and conducts research in the area of cementitious materials, with a specific interest in construction materials used in nuclear power plants and their degradation due to radiation, as well as experimental measurement of nano- to millimeter scale mechanical properties.

Sen. Rohan Munoth is a computational biologist working at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). He develops and optimizes data pipelines to analyze large biological datasets like whole-genome and single-cell sequencing. Much of his work involves using cloud computing and high-performance computing (HPC) to process data efficiently and at the scale researchers require.
He earned his Master’s in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he focused on creating scalable workflows and studying molecular processes such as ribosome pausing during protein synthesis. Combining biology and programming, Rohan enjoys solving research problems by writing clean, reproducible code and improving data analysis workflows.
He’s passionate about making complex biological data easier to work with and believes that good computational solutions can help speed up scientific discovery. Whether it’s setting up cloud infrastructure or optimizing pipelines, Rohan focuses on practical approaches that help researchers get meaningful results faster.

Nancy LoIacono is a Research Scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. She is an environmental scientist and epidemiologist and has dedicated her career to understanding the effects of exposure to metals (in particular lead and arsenic) on children’s neurocognitive development and the development of adverse health outcomes (cardiovascular and lung disease and diabetes) in adults. She has worked on studies at both the molecular and population levels. She has been involved in several long-term prospective studies that have focused on identifying the adverse effects of exposure to metals, evaluating the effectiveness and safety of various interventions, and formulating strategies to reduce or eliminate these exposures and/or to mitigate their effects.

Sen. Marco Tedesco is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and Adjunct Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). He is also affiliated with the Data Science Institute and is Affiliated professor at Sant’Anna School of Economics in Pisa, Italy. Dr. Tedesco has been the Resident Scientist at the Columbia Business School, since 2021. On the University Senate, He is a fellow of the Explorers Club and a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, Equity Working Group. Dr. Tedesco serves on the Research Officers Committee and on the External Relations and Research Policy Committee. 

Dr. Tedesco received his Laurea degree and Ph.D. from the University of Naples and the Italian National Research Council. He then spent five years as a postdoctoral and research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He moved to CCNY in 2008 as an Assistant Professor, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012. During his time at CCNY, he founded and directed the Cryosphere Processes Laboratory and was a rotating program manager at the National Science Foundation from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, he joined Columbia University. 

Dr. Tedesco’s research focuses on the dynamics of seasonal snowpack, ice sheet surface properties, high latitude fieldwork, dendrochronology, global climate change, its implications on the economy and real estate and climate justice. Dr. Tedesco led more than ten expeditions to Greenland and to Antarctica, beside fieldwork in  many other places, including Iceland, the United States, Canada, the Italian Alps. He is the editor of “Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere,” published by Wiley in 2015, and “The Hidden Lid of Ice.,” First published in 2018, it has been translated into seven languages and was selected by The Washington Post and by National Geographic Traveler as one of the best 10 books of the year. 

Sen. Kara Lamb is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University, a senior researcher in the Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP) Center, and an Affiliate of the Data Science Institute. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Climate School and collaborates with researchers at NASA GISS on the NASA Digital Twins for Climate Science project. She serves on the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on AI Applications to Environmental Science and is a member of the U.S. CLIVAR Process Study and Model Improvement Panel. 

Dr. Lamb received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Columbia, she spent four years as a research scientist at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, where she contributed to several major international airborne field campaigns, including the NASA KORUS-AQ and AToM missions and the NOAA FIREX FireLab study. Dr. Lamb’s research lies at the intersection of atmospheric observations, high-resolution modeling, and scientific machine learning. Her work focuses on improving understanding of aerosol and cloud processes, and developing interpretable, physics-informed machine learning approaches to advance next-generation Earth System Models.

Sen. Giovanni O. Oliveros as a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology for the past two years, I have worked tirelessly to advance not only my research career but also my lab’s scientific objectives. My experience, coupled with prior teaching and mentoring experience outside Columbia, has prepared me to represent postdoctoral researchers at a time when research needs are at an all-time high and funding is in limbo.

Through both my laboratory and mentoring / teaching experience, I have seen how funding shifts can impact the research and mentoring experience - even a small cut has drastic impacts on a trainee’s stability, growth, and future success. With drastic funding cuts and the future of postdocs uncertain, it is imperative that our voices are heard, particularly on issues such as job security, professional development, and salary equity, for all the hard work we contribute to the Columbia community.

My passion for building a more responsible, transparent, supportive research environment is what drives me to serve. As the postdoctoral senate representative, I will work to make sure the postdoc community at Columbia is well represented and our needs are met. I am ready to represent the postdoctoral community.

Sen. Daniel Wolf Savin is Senior Research Scientist in the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory. Dr. Savin's work addresses cutting-edge questions in astrophysics, planetary science, and solar physics through observations coupled with laboratory astrophysics studies in atomic, molecular, condensed matter, and plasma physics. On the University Senate, he represents Professional Research Officers and chairs the Research Officers Committee. He serves on the Executive Committee, co-chairs the Structure and Operations Committee, and serves on the Budget Committee. Dr. Savin is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society. In 2026 Dr. Savin was awarded the Laboratory Astrophysics Prize of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society.

Sen. Benjamin Bostick is a professor of geochemistry at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and has been a dedicated member of the Columbia University faculty for over 15 years. His research focuses on environmental systems, and he has collaborated extensively with colleagues across Columbia’s campuses. Sen. Bostick recognizes the vital role that research officers play in advancing the University’s mission. As a University Senator, he is committed to implementing changes that bridge the divide between instructional and research faculty. He advocates for stronger connections across academic units and ranks to foster a more integrated and supportive Columbia community. He places a high value on enhancing engagement between research faculty and students and is deeply committed to supporting the research staff who are critical to the University’s scholarly success. Additionally, Sen. Bostick is passionate about expanding the University’s connection with the broader New York City community through research and academic life.