About Me
Working as a gardener with an undergraduate degree in theatre performance, I became intrigued by the soil. My fascination grew as I took community college courses, eventually leading to my pursuit of a master's degree in Soil Science from the University of Wyoming. My first soil pedology course introduced permafrost as more than an abstract concept, igniting my interest and desire to study these soils before they disappeared into something entirely new.
During my doctoral program at Oregon State University, I have had the opportunity to study permafrost in both high alpine (Swiss and Italian Alps) and arctic (Alaska and Svalbard) landscapes. I collaborated with National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) scientists and utilized NEON datasets to study freeze-thaw. Collaborations with and funding from the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) created opportunities to integrate innovative analytical techniques into my research. From 2022-2023 I was an NSF Office of Polar Programs Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. In September 2023, I started my position as a research soil scientist with USDA-NRCS.
![@rachelvillarreal14 3D printed a DEM! It's so beautiful! 🤯😲⛰️
[Image Description: a plain white 3D printed piece is a mountainous landscape (watershed). About 1ft x 1ft and held by a hand.]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6102d3335697a3381f3c234f/1655664698266-1MZP43059WZO4WI1RG9P/image-asset.jpeg)
